0^ 



NEW THOUGHT COMMON SENSE 



New Thought 



Common Sen^e 



and 



What Life Means to M< 



By 
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 



Chicago 
W. B. Conkey Company 



ISo2 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

OCT 30 1908 

Copyritrtit fcntry 

cimss cc xxc, No, 
*'coPY a. 



Copyright, 1908 

BY 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 



ot 



CT 



6) l^'^y 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 

The Ancient Lineage of New Thought 11 

The Anti'toxin of Common Sense 19 

Are You Doing the Best You Can? 25 

Be Not Easily Offended . 33 

For What Are You Living? 39 

Ignore Misfortune 45 

The Power of Personality 51 

Common Sense and **Coodness" 59 

**Good Business" ... 65 

The Trapeze Performer 71 

The High Calling of Fatherhood 79 

The High Calling of Motherhood 87 

Thought Building for Children 93 

The New Thought Economy 101 

What Is a Cood Woman? 107 

The Color of Your Thoughts 115 

*1n Cod We Trust" .121 

Are You Alive? 127 

Something About Celibacy 135 

The Old and the New Thought View of Life 143 

The Cities Beyond 149 

The Onward March 155 

Common Sense Ideas in Marriage 161 



Table of Contents 

PAGE 

The Shading of the Picture 169 

Woman and the Cigarette 175 

Sinning Against the *'Iioly Ghost" 181 

New Thoughts and Beauty 189 

Famous and Infamous Women 195 

Enemies to Happiness 201 

The New Year 205 

Enthusiasm 211 

Brace Up 217 

Universal Need 223 

Every Day Opportunities 229 

The Masters 235 

Building Kindness Cells 243 

What Is Optimism? 249 

What Is the Loving Thing to Do? 259 

A New Thought Rosary 265 

Unto the End 271 

Keep Still and Wait 277 

What Life Means to Me 283 



The flowers have tender little souls 

That love, rejoice, aspire. 
Each star that on its orbit rolls 

Feels infinite desire. 
The diamond longs to scintillate 

When hid beneath the sod. 
The universe is animate 

With consciousness of God. 



THE ANCIENT LINEAGE OF 
NEW THOUGHT 



The Ancient Lineage of New Thought 

The philosophy of New Thought is not new, it 
has not one original idea, but is a simplified and prac- 
tical form of a very ponderous and wonderful religion. 
It makes an application to the everyday needs of 
modern life, of principles and ideas which the ancients 
used only for the few who chose the life of adepts. 

No being, human or divine, known to history, 
sacred or profane, can be called the originator or dis- 
coverer of mental or spiritual healing. The Bhagavad- 
Gita, the oldest known record of religious tenets, is full 
of New Thought. 

In the Dhammapada Buddha it is said : \J 

"All that we are, is the result of what we have 
thought." 

''In this Ifniverse there is one continuous force on 
every plane of existence. There is no difference be- 
tween the sun and man. There is no such thing 
as my body, or your body, except in words. It is all 
one. Sun, moon, mineral, man. Even in manifest 
motion there is only unity. One who has learned 
how to manipulate the internal forces will get the 
whole of nature under his control. 

"One man having more control of 'Prana' than 
another, can rouse him for the time being to a state of 
vibration, and transmit health to him. The process 
can be carried on at a distance. Is there any break 
between you and the sun? Why, then, cannot force 
travel? 

11 



12 New Thought Common Sense 

''This is only primifive healing. Faith and will, 
brought to bear, rouse, through faith, the dormant 
Prana of the patient and dispels disease. All manifesta- 
tions of power arise from control of Prana or thought." 

Here are some of the principles taken from the 
Raja Yoga (The literal meaning oi Raja Yoga is ''The 
science of conquering the external nature for the pur- 
pose of realizing the Divinity within'' What right 
has any modern teacher to claim that central idea as 
his or her own discovery?): "We must have four sorts 
of ideas: Friendship for all; we must he merciful 
toward those in misery; we must rejoice with the 
happy y and ignore wickedness.'' 

Every reaction in the form of hatred or evil 
thought is so much loss to the mind; and every evil 
thought, or deed, of hatred, controlled and overcome 
will he laid to our favor. Each time we suppress the 
unworthy impulse, so much good energy is stored in 
our favor, to be converted to higher uses. 

In the least known Atharva Veda there are sugges- 
tions and affirmations for the cure of disease which 
rival in minuteness and number any modern mind 
cure scheme. 

Those who care to look up these old works, can 
find how the masters of the most ancient philosophies 
w^ere familiar with all the laws claimed to be discov- 
ered by Theosophy, Christian Science or New 
Thought. 

It is difficult to understand how any modern meta- 
physician can claim a "discovery" in this line of 
thought, after reading such extracts from a philosophy 
thousands of years old when Christ came to earth. 
The idea that nothing exists in the universe but 
God and that by our consciousness of unity with 



The Ancient Lineage of New Thought 13 

Him we attain health, bliss and immortality, is the 
very foundation stone of the Vedas. It is at least 
presumptuous for anyone in this age to claim it as a 
discovery. 

Once every century or t^vo, the progressive minds 
of earth grow tired of empty forms and creeds, and 
seek for some simple expression of true religious feel- 
ing. Just now this creed is known as "New Thought." 
Two hundred years ago it was called "Quietism," 
and its leader was a woman, Mme. Guyon. She was 
born with a passion for a religious life. She passed 
through various phases of self-torture, self-sacrifice, 
austerity and devotion, and yet found no peace. 

Finally a holy man said to her: "Madam, you are 
disappointed because you seek from without, that 
which you have within. Accustom yourself to seek 
God in your own heart, and you will find Him." 

This statement was a revelation to Mme. Guyon; 
from that hour she became what was in that age 
termed "a mystic." It is said of her by a historian of 
her time: "God was continually present to her, and 
she appeared to feel and behold all creatures as im- 
mersed in the gracious omnipresence of the Most 
High. In her adoring contemplation of the Divine 
Presence, she often found herself unable to pray for 
any particular blessing. More than once those who 
chanced to sit near her, believed they perceived a 
marvelous efflux of grace proceeding from her to 
themselves." 

Mme. Guyon founded a religion called Quietism. It 
meant simply the habit of becoming quiet and finding 
the Divine Nature within. It called for no aid of 
priest, ideal, form or creed. 

That is precisely what the "New Thought" and 



14 New Thought Common Sense 

"Mental Science" people mean when they talk about 
"going into the Silence." 

Mme. Guyon gained her idea of "Quietism" from 
one who had gained his from the adepts and scholars 
of India. 

"New Thought" goes back to the same reservoir 
of human knowledge and religious attainments. 
Mme. Guyon often went to the extreme, which means 
fanaticism, and lost her balance, as so many devoutly 
religious people do. 

She refused to have an aching tooth extracted, be- 
lieving it was right to suffer since the pain was sent. 
She lost all interest in the world in which she lived, 
and unless engaged in establishing hospitals, or in other 
charitable works, or in her large correspondence on 
religious matters, she found happiness only in solitude 
and quiet, frequently lying absolutely motionless for 
hours in the woods. 

It is a good thing to be alone a portion of every 
day, and it is a good thing to commune with one's own 
soul. There is no growth possible otherwise. But it 
is a sensible thing to keep in touch with humanity and 
to walk along earth's highways, interested in and in- 
teresting to one's fellow beings. 

Any religion which eliminates human sympathy 
and common sense is on the road to fanaticism. 

Just as Mme. Guyon was absurd in refusing to 
draw the aching tooth, so the modern spiritual fanatic 
is absurd and almost criminal at times, when he allows 
a member of his family to die without trying "old 
thought" means of cure. 

There is a spirituality capable of preventing disease. 

But once it fails and alloAvs the enemy to creep in, 
then, if he is not quickly put to rout, let practical 
methods make their attempts at cure. 



The Ancient Lineage of New Thought 15 

While we keep our eyes fixed upon the heavens, 
we should remember that our feet must remain on the 
earth until we are freed from our bodies. 

We have not yet learned to fly. 



16 New Thought Common Sense 



The longer I live and the more I see, 

Of the struggle of souls toward the heights above, 
The stronger this truth comes home to me: 

That the Universe rests on the shoulders of love. 



THE ANTI-TOXIN OF 
COMMON SENSE 



The Anti-toxin of Common Sense 

Many phases of metaphysical thought to-day have 
become epidemic. They need the anti-toxin of Com- 
mon Sense, to save the minds infected, from mania. 
* Any philosophy, or religion, or creed, or dogma, 
which fails to make men better sons, husbands and 
fathers, better neighbors and citizens, is of little use 
to the world. 

Any woman who is not improved as a daughter, ^ 
wife, mother, neighbor and friend, by her religion, has 
not found the path that leads to the highest devel- 
opment of her character. 

Hundreds of men and women in our midst are 
striving to attain powers which will enable them to 
reach above this every day plane of consciousness, 
and to see and hear what is transpiring in psychic 
realms. 

Insanity, divorce, broken homes and broken 
minds, frequently result from these foolish endeavors 
to become "adepts." 

The ranks of the adepts are not reinforced, but 
the ranks of the world's unfortunates are. 

No religion, no philosophy, no course of mental 
or spiritual training can fit human beings to adorn oi 
enjoy "realms beyond" unless it fits them first to adorn, 
and enjoy, the realms in which they are placed by 
Destiny. 

No amount of spiritual enthusiasm can render us 
capable of filling important positions in "kingdom 
come" unless it enables us to first perform every 

19 



20 New Thought Common Sense 

nearest duty here on earth with willing cheerfulness, 
courage and trust. 

The Creator who placed us upon earth, in human 
bodies, with human instincts and appetites, intended 
us to live as normal human beings, performing the 
tasks necessary to the earthly sojourn, while we 
develop to the best of our ability the character 
which merits immortality. 

But this development cannot be obtained by leap- 
ing over the practical, commonplace obligations of 
home, neighborhood and society, and arriving at some 
spiritual eminence from which immortality is dis- 
cernible. 

It must be attained by climbing up the stairs of du- 
ties performed. Prayer and meditation "in the silence" 
are both means of lifting the mind above the petty 
worries of everyday life. They are like refreshing 
showers, which cleanse the mind from dust; like rays 
of sunshine, which bring forth blossoms on the bar- 
ren earth. 

But the woman who devotes her time to prayer 
and meditation and neglects to sweep her room, to 
prepare the meals for her family, to care for her per- 
son and make herself attractive to her husband and 
children, and who fails to interest herself in the things 
which render her companionable to those nearest 
her, is not developing the highest attributes of her 
nature. 

She is not winning immortality; and she is not on 
the path to the highest usefulness in this world. 

She is making a mistake, which will prove a hind- 
rance to her happiness on both planes of con- 
sciousness. 

When any religion creates a growing chasm 



The Anti-toxin of Common Sense 21 

between a wife or a mother, and her family, and causes 
a separateness of interests, and atrophies the affections, 
its divine origin may be questioned. 

Religion should give new vitality to the heart, 
strengthen the love nature, and bring those who are 
near to us still nearer; it should enable us to be so 
broad, so tolerant, so sympathetic, so loving, that all 
difference of faith can be borne, without discord or 
ahenation of the affections. 

New Thought, so called, of all religions ought to 
bring harmony rather than dissension into the family 
circle. Its whole philosophy rests upon the power of 
silent thought to change conditions and achieve 
results. 

The old creeds believed in proselyting, in trying 
to make converts, in preaching and haranguing, and in 
revival meetings, which consisted in working upon the 
emotional and hysterical nature of the "unconverted." 

New Thought has abandoned all these methods. 
The law of assertion has taken place of preaching 
and praying with "sinners." Thought has been de- 
clared by physical science to be a phase of the same 
energy which governs the solar system, v It is under- 
stood how, rightly and persistently directed, thought 
can draw to the mind which sends it forth, whatever 
that mind desires. ) Demand creates supply. 

The woman w^ho wants her family to come into 
harmony with her ideas, should begin by making her 
family love and respect her in every capacity of wife, 
mother, sister, daughter and friend. 

So practical, so thoughtful, so humanly loving, so 
useful, 'so companionable should she be in her daily 
life, so cheerful and so amiable in her performance 
of duties, that her example would, in the natural 



22 New Thought Common Sense 

course of events, seem worthy of emulation, and her 
ideas and opinions worthy of respect. 

When such a woman sends into space her quiet, 
earnest assertions that those who are dear to her 
believe as she believes, and understand as she under- 
stands, she need use no arguments, no sermons, no 
educating methods, to bring about the desired result. 

Sooner or later she will be given her heart's wish. 

But she who allows her creed to separate her 
from her family, who forgets to be the ideal wife, 
mother or daughter in trying to be the spiritual adept, 
only drives her family further away from the truth 
as she understands it, and delays her own best de- 
velopment by neglecting her nearest duties. 

It is good wives and good mothers and good 
women in the daily walks of life that the world needs, 
not adepts or miracle workers. 

"Be ye faithful in a few things, and ye shall be 
made rulers over many." 

Great powers come to those who continually per- 
form small obligations with an understanding of their 
importance in the building of the House Beautiful — 
the human character. 



I care not who were vicious back of me: 
No shadow of their sins on me is shed. 

My will is greater than heredity, 
I am no worm to feed upon the dead. 



ARE YOU DOING THE 
BEST YOU CAN? 



Are You Doing the Best You Can? 

Ofttimes we hear used the expression, "I am 
doing the best I can." 

But are we doing the best we can? 

Are you? If you are a man, and your home is not 
all you would like it to be, are you doing the best you 
can to make it right? 

You are providing your wife and children with all 
that money can buy. But are you making them feel 
how hard you work for this money, and are you giving 
them no companionship, no attention, no personal 
interest outside of paying the bills they contract? 

Then you are not doing the best you can to bring 
about right home conditions. 

You are not a real man, a real husband, a real 
father. You are merely a mine of ore, from which 
members of your family dig the material things they 
need. 

But their hearts and minds are starved for what 
you can give and should give — sympathy, personal 
interest, companionship. 

Perhaps you are the other kind of a man, who stores 
up money for the future, and who, with any surplus, 
likes to make a good showing at the clubs and among 
the politicians, but who begrudges his wife a purse of 
her own and crucifies her daily on the altar of mean- 
ness. 

I recall an old, old lady, who was sensitive, refined, 
unselfish and, unmercenary by nature, and who had 
been tortured into a discontented pessimist as only 

25 



26 New Thought Common Sense 

such natures can be, by fifty years of married life witli 
a man who had not one vice, save that of money 
meanness. 

Never did he give her a dime without compelling 
her to ask for it and to tell for what purpose she used 
it afterward. 

Only when the children grew old enough to earn 
money and give the mother of their earnings, was she 
relieved from this miserable slavery, which destroyed 
her love and respect for her husband, and her pride 
in herself. 

Yet this man was always declaring that he "was 
doing the best he could to provide for his family." 

But was he? There is something to consider 
besides supplying the material needs of a wife when a 
man marries a woman of any refinement or feeling. 
He must provide her with conditions which sustain 
her self-respect, as well as with mere food, and roof, 
and raiment. 

If you are a woman, perhaps you say you are doing 
the best you can to create beautiful home relations 
for your family. 

But are you? You are loyal, industrious and affec- 
tionate. But is your house well ordered and clean and 
comfortable? 

Order is heaven's first law; and unless your home 
is orderly you are committing a sin against high heaven. 

Unless you are amiable, and optimistic, and sym- 
pathetic, and patient, you are committing a sin against 
love and wronging your children, and probably 
alienating your husband. 

So are you doing the best you can? 

Then in the matter of health? You are doing the 
best you can, you say, to keep well. 



Are You Doing the Best You Can ? 27 

But are you? Are you hreatMng ? If you had a 
thousand dollars in your purse and were starving, it 
would seem very foolish; but you have thousands of 
cells in your lungs, and you are using only about 6 per 
cent of them for the purpose of pumping fresh air 
through your body. 

That is the percentage used by nineteen people in 
every score and that is why only one in every score 
is really enjoying good health. 

Are you breathing the best you can? Give five 
minutes each morning and night to breathing exercises, 
using every lung cell, and see the difference in a 
week's time. 

Instead of wearing out your mind with impractica- 
ble efforts at gaining something you do not need, stop 
a bit and ask yourself a few questions. 

Are you doing the duties which lie nearest? 

Are you confronting the daily obligations and 
problems of domestic, social, political and religious life 
with dignity, pride, self-respect and courage? 

These obligations and problems are not always 
presented to us in tragic or lofty form. They more 
frequently come in mean and shabby attire, and with 
a disagreeable countenance. 

There are relatives or members of your family 
who, to use your own expression, perhaps, "get on 
your nerves." They annoy you in a thousand and 
one small ways. Their manners, their habits, their 
voices, their ideas, all render them uncongenial to you. 
And so life is a constant discord. 

But are you meeting this situation with all that is 
tolerant, and large-minded, and wholesome, and kind 
in your nature? 

Do you try to make these people feel that you are 




28 New Thought Common Sense 

kindly disposed toward them; that you have their best 
interests at heart; that you admire whatever is admir- 
able in them, and that you sympathize with their 
dearest aims and ambitions, even if you disapprove of 
some things they do? 

Only by such an attitude of mind can you ever 
hope to render the situation less insupportable, or to 
influence them to be what you desire. 

If you are nagging, sarcastic, contemptuous, irritable, 
cold, sullen or indifferent to those who annoy you, then 
you are making a bad matter worse, and you are wast- 
ing beautiful life, and valuable mental forces, in a mean 
and ignoble manner. 

You are sinning against yourself, even more than 
these people are sinning against you. 

If the individual who disappoints you is your wife 
or your husband are you doing all in your power to 
better the condition? 

Remember, it is the most vitally important matter 
in your life; in two lives; and if there are children, in 
their lives also. 

The man who marries a woman he loves, and who 
loves him, and then fails to keep her loving and happy, 
is either a vicious or a weak man. 

The woman who fails to keep her husband happy 
and in love with her is either a vicious or a weak 
woman. Somewhere there is a Aveak point. 

You should have a quiet talk with yourself, and 
find out where you failed; and, if it is not too late, try 
to mend the broken link in love's chain, or put in a 
new link. 

If you are running about to your neighbors for 
consolation, talking about your domestic disappoint- 
ments, you are assuredly weak, and you are not meet- 



Are You Doing the Best Yor Can? 29 

ing this great problem with the strength and pride 
demanded by the situation. 

The Invisible Helpers who stand very near a soul 
in trouble, should be the only intermediaries between 
husband and wife. Go alone into your room; sit very 
quietly and ask these Divine Friends to come to your 
aid; they are messengers of God, and will give you 
light and understanding when you are at the limit of 
your own strength. 

Unless you have asked such guidance and felt your 
whole being go forth in the demand for light you have 
not done all you could or should to better the situation. 

Are you doing what you can, and all you should, 
for those nearest you, in a financial way? 

And are you taking care not to overdo for others? 

It is your first obligation, before you give to public 
charities or foreign missions, or make a display in the 
world, to see that you have no relatives who are on 
the town, or liable to become public charges. If every 
man and woman attended to this duty there would be 
no need of almshouses or homes for paupers. 

But it is just as imperative an obligation that you do 
not make paupers, by supporting people who are able 
to work, and who lose all moral fibre and all strength 
of character by having you pay their bills and assume 
their obligations. A rich man is often the worst 
enemy of his own children, when he allows them to 
grow up without self-reliance or a sense of responsi- 
bility. 

How are you meeting all these problems of life? 

Are you doing the best you can? 



30 New Thought Common Sense 



Oh, you who mourn about To-day's dark 

sorrows. 
What part have you in bringing bright 

To-morrows? 



BE NOT EASILY 
OFFENDED 



■" Be Not Easily Offended 

A MOST beautiful calendar opens with the lines: 

"I'll not easily offend, 

Nor be easily offended; 
What's amiss I'll try to mend, 

And endure what can't be mended." 

One could hardly start the year with a better 
resolution than is contained in these words. 
^ To not easily offend is to be continually considerate. 
To think before speaking; to restrain the careless word 
and the useless criticism; to forego the pleasure of a 
laugh when it would fall as ridicule on sensitive ears, 
and to avoid the little sins of omission which mar 
friendship — the unanswered letter, the unpaid call, the 
word of approval or congratulation for achievement 
or success, and the word of sympathy for trouble or 
loss. 

Then, too, even more admirable still, it seems to 
me, is the resolve: 

"Nor be easily offended." 

One of the most expensive luxuries of life, and the 
least profitable as an investment for happiness, is the 
friend who is "easily offended," and to whom you are 
forever apologizing for the mistakes you did not mean 
to make, and the slights you did not know you had 
given, until they were forced upon your unwilling at- 
tention. 

^ The easily offended nature is usually the selfish and 
3 33 



34 New Thought Common Sense 

self-centered nature; yet it may be found, too, with 
those who have been neglected in early youth, and 
who have formed the habit of morbid self-depreciation. 

I have known a successful and broad-minded 
business man, to be hypersensitive regarding the 
small things of life, and to imagine he was ^'neglected" 
and ''slighted" if a friend passed him, absorbed in 
thought, with only an ordinary salutation. But this 
man had been an orphan boy, living a lonely child- 
hood among people who fed and clothed him, but 
who ofttimes made him realize that he was not an 
important factor in their lives. 

So he had shaped his mind to gloomy thoughts of 
neglect, and after he became important to the lives of 
many people, and a man of large affairs and wide in- 
terests, still his brain continued to work in the old 
groove, and he was "easily offended." 

More frequently, however, this fault is associated 
with the selfish and the vain, who find no happiness 
unless given the center of life's stage, and with the full 
force of the calcium light thrown upon them. And if 
one individual in the audience looks at any other of 
God's company for a brief moment, then they are 
"offended" and want to resign from the role and com- 
pel the curtain to ring down. 

Difficult, indeed, is life with such people; and there- 
fore the motto which bids us to be "not easily offended" 
should be written in letters of light and hung where all 
may read. Love your friends, trust them, believe in 
them; and when any events arise which seem incon- 
sistent with such belief, wait an explanation before 
becoming offended. 

In nine cases out of ten the explanation will be 
forthcoming; for if you yourself are a worth-while, val- 



Be Not Easily Offended 35 

uable and loyal friend, it stands to reason that you are 
not going to be neglected or ill used, by those whose 
friendship you value. 

"Be not easily offended." You can help to sweet- 
en the world for yourself and others if you live true to 
this motto. 

Put it into practice, first of all, where every great 
virtue and accomplishment should be practised — in 
the home. 

As a wife, a daughter, a sister, a mother, "be not 
easily offended." 

The touchy woman can destroy an Eden almost as 
easily as can the serpent. 

There is usually a lamentable lack of a sense of 
humor in a woman who is easily offended. She takes 
every least act, every look and every failure to speak 
or look as a serious intent on the part of somebody to 
"wound her feelings." 

How she suffers, poor thing ! Yet how she makes 
others suffer by her silly self-consciousness and her 
eternal sensitiveness. 

She will tell you that because she gives so much 
and is so unselfish she suffers more keenly through the 
lack of others to return in like measure. 

But this is not true of love. The really loving na- 
ture is so occupied with the giving, that it does not find 
time to be offended over small neglects. 

The royally loving nature is not "touchy." It is not 
suspicious. It is not easily offended. 
\ It is cheerful, it is generous, it is optimistic, it is 
amiable. 

And these are qualities which help women to build 
earthly heavens, and to keep husband, children, friends 
true, loyal and admiring. 

"Be not easily offended." 



36 New Thought Common Sense 



With its unburied dead the earth is sad. 
Art thou alive? Proclaim it and be glad. 
Perchance the dead may hear thee and arise, 
Knowing they live, and liere is Paradise. 



FOR WHAT ARE YOU 
LIVING? 



For What Are You Living? 

Do YOU ever stop and ask yourself for what you 
are living? 

Is it for "success" in some undertaking? 

Then what are you doing to produce success? 

No matter how hard you may be working, unless 
you are finding pleasure and pride in your work, and 
doing it with cheerfulness, you are not going forward 
to real success. 

One month of such application of your powers will 
achieve more for you than a year of grumbling, dogged 
work, done with unwillingness and dislike of the task. 

Whatever you are doing, reason yourself into a 
love of your labor, until you can leave it for something 
more agreeable. 

One excellent way to reason along these lines is to 
see that every day given to an unpleasant task is 
bringing it nearer its completion, when you can aban- 
don it. 

And even if it seems to you that such an end can 
never be attained, that the work you have in hand is 
endless, yet, remember that ihoug?it\s the greatest mir- 
acle worker, and that thought is energy, and that by 
continual determination, coupled with continual aspir- 
ation and effort, you can bring any change you desire ^ \ 
into your life. 

But no good results can be achieved by angry, pur- 
poseless rebellion or sullen discontent, or work done 
with hatred and disgust, however well done. 

39 



t 



40 New Thought Common Sense 

Are you living for happiness? 

What are you doing to produce happiness? 

Are you dressing beyond your means; taking more 
"days off" than you can afford; buying more things 
than you need or can use? 

Are you eating and drinking solely for the pleasure 
of the palate, and for the enjoyment of the moment, 
and with no thought of what nourishes, or what clogs 
the system and produces disease? 

Perhaps you say it takes all your strength and time 
to supply the mere "necessities of life," and you are 
unhappy because of this fact. 

But what are the necessities of life? 

Were you to be cast on a desert island, with plenty 
of good water, grains and fruit, honey and nuts, you 
would be surprised to find how little food it takes to 
supply the body with nourishment and to sustain good 
health. 

We do not care to live as we would if obliged to 
dwell upon a desert island; but that does not prove the 
luxuries in which we indulge are "life's necessities." 

So, in thinking over your life and its hardships and 
obligations, do not put the blame on "life's necessities" 
Avhen you find you are using all your time and money 
and effort to merely live. 

You are really exhausting yourself to follow stand- 
ards set by others. 

This can never produce happiness. 

If you wear yourself out in the struggle to buy a 
motor car, and to sustain one, because your neighbors 
have this luxury, and not because your income and 
position make the car a suitable possession, you will 
never reach happiness. 

Happiness in material things comes only in having 



For What Are You Living? 41 

what we really need, when we really need it, and 
when we can really afford it. 

Happiness comes from within the mind, never from 
without. 
^' That is an old, old statement, but it is eternally true. 

Happiness comes from self-respect, and self-respect 
comes trom the^nowledge that we are living within 
our^means, that we owe no man money we cannot 
eventually pay, that we are able to enjoy the changing 
seasonsjwithoutTunning in debt to keep up a variety 
of expensive homes at fashionable resorts, and that we 
are able to find pleasure in walking when we cannot 
nde, a nd in keeping at work when we cannot take a 
vacaJLign. 

Hap piness lies in the consciousness of the privilege^ 
of life. Unti]_:yoyLrealize^apart from all material con 
sider ations what a p rivilege]Tjfe is, you cannot be 
happy. 

Say^over to yourself a dozen of the most familiar 
names of extravagantly wealthy people in America, 
and think of the miserable scandals and wretched 
domestic conditions which have been associated with 
some member of nearly every one of these families. 

Then you will be able to reason out how little 
wealth has to do with real happiness. 

Happiness must rest on cliaracter, and character 
building lies in the power of the poorest man on earth. 

Build yourself a splendid mansion of the mind; then, 
whether you live in a flat or a mansion, in a tent on 
the plains, in a tenement in the city or in a cottage by 
the sea, you will know the secret of happiness. 

And the world is full of 'new thought" literature, 
which is a good foundation for happiness. Read, 
think, live rightly and happiness must come. 



Vy 



42 New Thought Common Sense 



The populace may run after the dishon- 
orable man of wealth, hoping for benefits, 
but it does not admire or respect him. 



IGNORE MISFORTUNE 



Ignore Misfortune 

Most of us have passed through the unpleasant ex- 
perience of making a visit to the dentist, for the pur- 
pose of discovering the cause, and cure, of a toothache. 

When the dentist placed his merciless instruments 
on the sore tooth, and assured us it must be extracted, 
or filled, which meant more pain for us, we have 
groaned in spirit and dreaded the ordeal; but few of 
us have been so weak and illogical as to heap anath- 
emas on the dentist for telling us unpleasant facts. 

Hundreds of people approach friends with their 
troubles and misfortunes, asking some helpful sugges- 
tion, and if they are told that the cause of their unhap- 
piness lies in themselves, and are advised to remove 
it, they become angry and accuse the truthful friend 
of lack of sympathy. 

A talented and brilliant woman of mature years 
has for a decade and a half applied to a friend yearly 
for counsel, sympathy and influence. 

The friend has listened and given such suggestions 
as possible to the lady, always realizing that her own 
restless nature and lack of concentration lay at the 
bottom of her troubles. 

First, it was an unsympathetic and incompatible 
husband, who caused the lady trouble. There was a 
lack of means, which the wife tried to supply, and her 
many failures in various business ventures she always 
laid at the door of the erratic and unappreciative 
husband. 

45 



46 New Thought Common Sense 

Death removed the husband; but the lady found 
much sorrow left. Her children were either at home, 
causing her disappointment and anxiety, or away from 
home, causing her loneliness. 

She went abroad, and made every exertion to 
come home; but in a few months she felt there was 
no happiness for her save by going back over seas. 
Again she returned, and each time she sought a new 
occupation. 

And always she approached her friend for influence 
and advice. 

Finally the friend decided to tell her the truth, and 
to impress upon her mind the necessity of chang- 
ing her habit of thought, as a preliminary to a change 
of luck. 

And now the lady feels her friend has been 
cruel, hard and unsympathetic. "I asked for bread, 
but you gave me a stone," is her cry. 

But her friend is merely the truthful dentist. 

Never once in all these years has the woman been 
heard to speak a word of thankfulness regarding any 
event in her life. 

She envied other people their good luck, and be- 
moaned her own misfortunes continually. 

This state of mind will bring ill luck to any one 
who indulges it. 

Just so long as you sit down and enumerate 
your troubles, your troubles will multiply. 

Just as soon as you begin to be thankful for any- 
thing, other things will be given you for which to offer 
thanks. 

The very first step up and away from misfortunes, 
is when a human soul takes upon itself the entire 
blame for what has occurred, and says: "Somehow 



Ignore Misfortune 47 

and in some way I must have invited this trouble; 
somehow and in some way I must deserve it, and the 
experience must be meant for my good. I will make 
the best of it, and no one shall ever hear me complain." 

That attitude of mind will invariably bring its own 
comfort with it; and added to the comfort will come 
hope, and courage, and opportunity to better the con- 
ditions surrounding the life. 

To every day recount the blessings which are ours 
is as sure to increase those blessings as the scattering 
of seed in fallow soil, is a sure way to bring a harvest. 

There is no misfortune or unhappiness or ill luck 
we cannot change into some measure of success and 
contentment, by the force of thought and the persist- 
ency of faith in the goodness of God and the belief 
that we are God's heirs. 

The great wise men of ancient times wrote: *'Be 
indi/Jerent to evil.'' 

It was one of the strongest planks in their religious 
platform. The metaphysicians of a later day have 
claimed to "discover" a law^ of "denying" evil. But 
the old seers were much wiser in not even paying it 
the attention of a denial; they were simply indifferent: 
they did not recognize it. All their emphasis was 
placed on the good things of life; and by talking about 
anything, good or bad, we magnify and multiply it. 

The more you talk about your misfortunes and 
troubles, the more will come to listen and to be talked 
about. 

The more you enumerate your blessings, the great- 
er number you will have to enumerate. 

Believe you were born to good luck. Say so every 
day and every hour in the day, and thank the Creator 
of all things for the blessings which are already yours. 

"And unto those who have, more shall be given." 



48 New Thought Common Sense 



Work, regarded by many as the curse 
sent upon man for sin, is instead God's 
Highway to the hills of liappiness. 



THE POWER OF PERSONALITY 



The Power of Personality 

Whatever your mission in life, do not ignore the 
fact that your personality and your personal appear- 
ance have a great influence on your success or failure. 

It is useless to quote the cases of repulsive men and 
women, badly attired, unkempt aud unwashed, who 
have achieved glory and fame and obtained power 
over men and circumstances. There may be such 
cases; but it requires transcendental genius, and hyp- 
notic power, to produce such results with suCh con- 
ditions. 

Very plain, even ugly people, often possess an 
attractive personality. But they are well groomed 
and well dressed. 

It is not physical beauty of a classical type that is 
under discussion, as a necessary factor in success. It 
is a well-cared-for body, and decent and tastefully 
worn clothing. 

There is nothing gained by a reformer, when he 
appeals to the minds and hearts of people with an im- 
passioned appeal for humanity, and offends their eyes 
with uncombed hair and disorderly dress. 

A woman who gave her life to the helping of the 
oppressed, used to lose half her influence by appearing 
before audiences attired in a slip-shod manner, and 
with locks of straggling, unkempt hair. 

However much she might have objected to fashion, 
yet she should have been large enough in her under- 
standing of human nature, to realize that the eye is one 

51 



J 



52 New Thought Common Sense 

avenue to the mind and heart, and to know that the 
conventional eye, accustomed to a certain neatness of 
dress and coiffure, would not carry a message of sym- 
pathy so directly to the mind, if the attire and person- 
ality of the pleader offended. 

Before we ask people to conform their political, 
religious or philanthropical ideas to our own, let us 
conform some of our ideas to suit their preconceived 
opinions on what constitutes propriety. 

If one is too busy to give any attention to the matter 
of personal appearance, it is wise to adopt a uniform, 
as the members of the Salvation Army have done. A 
uniform is never offensive. 

But if that is impracticable for any reason, then at 
least take time to be clean, neat and well dressed, 
however plain and free from adornments the dress 
may be. 

Nature pays a good deal of attention to apparel. 
The forests are well dressed and change their clothes 
four times a year. Man, as a part of Nature, even 
though he is deprived of his rights and privileges by 
greed and monopoly, can at least be well brushed, 
often washed and scrupulously neat in his attire and 
person. He can cut and comb his hair. 

The philanthropist who wishes to interest the pub- 
lic in a noble cause, the poet who ^vishes to embellish 
his own works in the eyes of an audience, the reform- 
er who hopes to improve the industrial conditions of 
the country, the evangelist who tries to awaken the 
spiritual nature of mankind, the scientist who has a 
message for the world — all these types will find their 
efforts reinforced with new power if they produce a 
pleasing effect upon their audiences, by their personal 
appearance. 



The Power of Personality 53 

It means a loss of strength to be frowsy, ugly and 
ill-dressed. There is no economy, or sense, or reason 
in it. 

Ugliness breaks a divine law. 

It is worth the time given to its accomplishment 
when a human being produces the effect of beauty 
and charm to the casual eye. 

The love of beauty is inherent in every soul. 

It is founded on a great law — the law of cause and 
effect. Whoever is born into life possessed of beauty, 
lived in some former incarnation a beautiful life. 

We are all the result of our former lives. Our 
bodies are the concentrated results of former ac- 
tions. Nothing proves this more conclusively than the 
fact that many deformed and ugly people are monu- 
ments of goodness and virtue. They exhausted their 
viciousness and outlived their follies in another life, 
and passed out, repentant, and awakened to the 
knowledge of their mistakes. 

Nevertheless, they are obliged to carry through 
this incarnation the physical expression of their form- 
er deeds, viz: ugliness or deformity. But while here 
it is right and commendable that they should make 
every effort to return to the olden beautiful appear- 
ance. 

Beauty is harmony. Harmony is truth. To 
violate truth means a discord, and discord produces 
ugliness. 

Seek for beauty in all things. 

Make yourself as beautiful as possible in this life, 
first by beautiful thoughts, beautiful desires, beautiful 
actions; next by care of the body, cleanliness, neat- 
ness, order and proper dressing. 

Only in that way can you reach your fullest de- 
velopment and usefulness. 



54 New Thought Common Sense 

Beauty can be cultivated and grown from a very 
small and poor beginning, just as Burbank grows 
glorious flowers from puny bulbs. 

Tlie hody must he grafted upon the spirit to do 
this. Spirit, mind and body must all work to- 
gether. 

I believe in great care of the body. The special- 
ists who teach us how to preserve the eyes, the teeth, 
the hair, the complexion, the figure, are all blessings to 
this age of progress. But unless a woman gives more 
attention to the counsels of that great Inner Specialist, 
the immortal spirit, and unless she heeds the advice of 
her brain and cultivates the mental graces, she will 
make only partial progress in her beauty culture. 

Although you may possess a magic cream which 
softens your skin and keeps lines at bay; though you 
have learned the massage which will keep your hair 
glossy and abundant, and the physical exercises which 
bring your figure to the curves of beauty, you will not 
remain beautiful if you are harboring jealous, sarcastic 
or bitter thoughts in your heart, or if you are indulging 
in tempers and sulks. 

Every envious, ungracious and irritable mood is 
like a frost which destroys some of Mr. Burbank's 
lovely experiments. 

Every loving, forgiving and sympathetic impulse is 
like a sunbeam upon the plant of beauty. 

Cultivate them assiduously. Even if your nature is 
not naturally loving you can develop these feelings. 
' Look for the things to admire, and to love in each 
person you meet. Say over the word Love often to 
yourself, mentally. 

As you walk along the street, or sit in the public 
conveyance send out a blessing to the world. Say in 



The Power of Personality 55 

your heart, **God bless and help every living creature 
to-day." 

It will bring great peace to your mind and great 
light to your face. 

And it will cause this feeling to grow in your nature. 

And it will help you to grow beautiful as you 
grow older. 



56 New Thought Common Sense 



A consciousness of striving to live up to 
one's highest ideals, is the wine of life, 
and a wine that leaves no bitter taste in 
the mouth. 



COMMON SENSE AND 
"GOODNESS" 



Common Sense and "Goodness" 

Every now and then a -world-weary and folly- 
weary man marries an innocent, unworldly and "good 
woman." 

He wants the sweet home life he has not found 
in the paths of Pleasure, nor in the byways of License. 
He wants the unmercenary devotion of a loving 
woman, and he wants to walk forth in the broad 
light of day, unashamed, with his wife by his side. 

It is the inevitable goal of every worth-while man. 

The world approves of such marriages, and the 
woman feels that she is filling the highest mission of 
her sex in reclaiming a lost sheep. 

But how few such woman know the wise, middle 
course, to walk with such a man. 

It is all very well to listen and believe when he 
tells you he is happier than he has ever been in his 
life before, and that his home is dearer to him than 
any club on earth. 

But it is far from very well if you fall upon his 
neck and weep, the first time he intimates that he 
would like to drop in at the club and talk with the old 
chums for an hour. 

This is the poorest method you could adopt to con- 
vince him of the greater joys of home. 

There is a certain fascination in club life to most 
men. There is danger in this fascination to some 
men. When a man sickens of it and wants a home, 
it is because he has had nothing but his club, and be- 

59 



60 New Thought Common Sense 

cause there is a worthy element in his nature which 
calls for something better. 

The fact that he should want to visit the old scene 
now and then, is not an indication that he is sick of 
home, or that he is wandering from the fold again. 

// the pasture is sweety and tlie sliepJierdess kind 
and wise, the sheep will not wander far. 

If you have married a man who has been over- 
fond of the fair sex, and if he is kind and true and lov- 
ing, do not stand forever upon the alert, lest he be- 
come disloyal to you. 

Constant surveillance never yet kept a man true. 
It has made many a man unfaithful. 

Although your husband may have told you over 
and over, that you are tenfold more pleasing to him 
than any woman he ever knew before he met you, 
that does not signify that he might not like to sit by 
some other at a dinner party, or dance with some 
other at a cotillon. It does not signify that he would 
not enjoy talking with others, whom he regards less 
highly than you. 

In the association Avith the women he does not 
love, a man often most appreciates the woman he does 
love.' Should he take a seat by some other woman 
and converse with her in your presence, do not act 
sulky, distrait or injured. 

That only makes you ridiculous and unlovable. 

Although your innocence and unworldliness won 
your husband from the paths of folly, those qualities 
will not keep him at your side, unless you mingle com- 
mon sense and tact with them. 

It is easy for many woman to be brilliant, and it is 
easy for others to be good. But it seems the most dif- 
ficult thing in the world for a woman to be sensible. 



Common Sense and "Goodness " 61 

Genius and virtue are everywhere, but we must 
search for common sense. 

Woman is called a composite creature, but man 
is tenfold more composite. When a man has had the 
whole world catering to everything in his make-up, 
except his love of virtue, he is not to be made abid- 
ingly happy with nothing but that quality satisfied. 

He cannot suddenly and permanently change his 
whole mental structure. 

Be satisfied, then, if your husband gives up the lib- 
erties and vices which the world allows a bachelor, 
but do not ask him to relinquish the courtesies and 
recreations which are every man's privilege. 

Drive Suspicion from your door, and install Confi- 
dence in its place. Cultivate self-esteem and self-con- 
fidence, and think, act, talk and live so sweetly and 
lovingly that rivalry is impossible. 

Make the new life a holiday, not a term of impris- 
onment. A very good woman who has no human 
weakness in her nature, is sometimes the devil's tool 
to drive men to drink. 

Absolute loyalty, absolute morality, absolute honor 
and cleanliness of life, every woman has the right to 
ask of her husband. The best of his devotion and the 
larger portion of his leisure should be given her volun- 
tarily. But to make him a willing captive should be 
woman's art, not to make him a life prisoner, and the 
home a reformatory, and the wife a suspicious warden, 
always imagining that the prisoner is planning escape. 

The good wife must possess other qualities besides 
goodness, to render her marriage with a mere man 
successful. 

Common sense and tact must be two strands of the 
rope to make it strong enough to act as an anchor for 



62 New Thought Common Sense 

the domestic ship. The too good wife relies wholly 
upon one strand, and the ship breaks anchor. 

If your husband has given up dissipation, do not 
insist that he must let his cigar go also. 

If he has abandoned the gaming table, do not say 
that he must give up the social game of cards as well, 
to make you happy. 

If he has stopped all flirtatious relations with the 
opposite sex, do not ask him to relinquish all friendly 
associations with other woman. 

If he has come up out of a lower plane to your alti- 
tude, do not ask him to stand forever upon a pedestal. 
Let him walk upon the earth among mortals and be 
satisfied. 

In order to think him a good man, do not ask him 
to be an angel. 

Wholesome, normal, sensible human beings are 
what we all need to be while on earth, not disem- 
bodied spirits. 

Clean thoughts, clean habits, clean bodies and 
happy hearts and faces, help to make beautiful lives 
and homes. 

But the too good wife sometimes sees evil where it 
does not exist, and by suspicion and insinuation ruins 
her own chances of happiness. 

In order to be a good wife, do not be "too good." 

And remember 'Thoughts are things" and as you 
continually think of your husband, so you are helping 
him to be. 

The star sheds radiance on a million worlds, 
The sea is prodigal with waves, and yet 
No luster from the star is lost, and not 
One drop is missing from the ocean tides. 



GOOD BUSINESS" 



"Good Business" 

Before real continued success can come to a 
woman in any self-supporting realm, she must have 
several things of which she seems unconscious to-day. 

I fear it is the exceptional business woman who 
has a realization of the necessity of paying her bills 
promptly, and of making her word as good as her note 
in money matters. 

I shall never forget the mortification I felt upon a 
time, when in a strange place, away from home, I gave 
the name of a well-known business woman as ref- 
erence in a financial matter. I knew her as a most 
ambitious and seemingly successful business woman, 
and was astonished to be told that her note was not 
considered of any value, and that in her own town 
she could not obtain credit because it was so difficult 
to collect bills when due. 

Afterward I heard the woman bemoan the cruelty 
of the world toward a woman who tried to make her 
own way. 

Of course our sex has not been accustomed to 
assume large responsibilities, and it is difficult to grasp 
the situation at once. We have been for centuries the 
recipients of the gallant attentions or tyrannical espion- 
age of men, and to become their associates in business 
is quite another matter. 

But since woman has entered upon this field, let 
her keep her shield bright and her sword sharp, and 
her sense of honor keen. 

5 '65 



66 New Thought Common Sense 

Another point to be observed is the necessity to 
epitomize her ideas and curtail her words in business 
conversation. One of woman's greatest hindrances 
to success is her loquaciousness. 

The woman who places any value on the worth 
of her own time or that of another, and displays it by 
economizing both, is worthy of a gold medal, so un- 
usual a specimen is she. 

Every word "sve utter means an expenditure of a 
certain amount of vital force; yet women waste this 
force as recklessly as if it were dross instead of pure 
gold. 

They talk above, below and around the point at 
issue, using ten phrases to express what could be 
better said in one. 

Woman's conception of the importance and value 
of time is conveyed in a smiling, "I know you are 
awfully busy, and I fear I am trespassing upon your 
time," while she immediately proceeds to talk for 
another half hour upon something which has nothing 
to do with the purpose of her call. 

In social life the woman who flits from topic to 
topic like a butterfly from flower to flower, is delight- 
ful. She rests, entertains, amuses and often instructs 
her listeners. 

The woman who is too serious, and one-sided in 
social life, is worse, if anything, than the one who is 
too profuse and diffusive in business. 

This seems to be the point which she finds difficult 
to realize. 

It is the exceptional man who goes into a busy 
office or study, and takes half an hour to do his errand. 

It is the exceptional woman who takes less. 

With all woman's desire to be unselfish, and, 



"Good Business" 67 

despite the foundation of unselfishness upon which 
her nature is built, she is thoughtless and inconsiderate 
by her wasteful verbosity, as a rule, in business matters. 

The woman who is direct, concise and expeditious 
in her methods is as unusual as a white blackbird. 

She seldom lacks employment. This quality of 
dispatch is one of the fundamental laws of success, 
and nothing reaches a man's business heart sooner 
than a delicate consideration of the great value of his 
time, and an indication that your own, as well, is 
worth conserving. 

To every woman or girl who is about to seek 
influence, advice or a position, I offer this counsel: 

Before you set forth on your errand, think out 
clearly what you want. 

Then think of a few concise sentences by which 
you may express your wish. 

Keep to your point. Do not tell the story of your 
life, or describe your genealogical descent from William 
the Conqueror, to the man you hope will give you 
employment. 

Talk about the subject which called you into his 
presence, and talk with directness and fluency, and 
get done with it and go away. 

If you do not win the man's patronage, you will at 
least win his respect and gratitude. 

And you will have saved your own time and nerve 
force for other occasions. 



68 New Thought Common Sense 



One of the most inspiring objects on 
earth, is a strong man bearing the burdens 
of a lot of weaklings of both sexes, all 
unconscious of his own need of sym- 
pathy. 



THE TRAPEZE PERFORMER 



The Trapeze Performer 

Watching the wonderful work of a tight-rope and 
trapeze performer, the question arose: What good 
does it all do? Where is the benefit to the human 
race in such a sacrifice of time, as this athlete has been 
obliged to make, in order to reach his astonishing pro- 
ficiency in a seemingly useless achievement? 

Yet this man, and all others who have attained skill 
in the same difficult line of endeavor, are benefactors 
to the human race, if we will look at the matter ana- 
lytically. 

They teach us what can be accomplished in any 
direction by unswerving purpose, unflagging will and 
persistent patience. 

To jump through the air, to catch the hands of 
another man who is hanging by his feet from a trapeze 
and oscillating to and fro, to drop those hands and turn 
the body completely around in midair and then catch 
the perch from which the original leap is made and 
vault as lightly to a seat as a bird settles upon a branch, 
is an achievement which no human being can accom- 
plish, save by one method. 

And this method is direct purpose, unfaltering 
effort and daily practice. 

And this method will bring success to any effort, in 
any line, for any human being who puts it into execu- 
tion. 

When I think of the marvelous control over his 
body, and over the laws of gravitation which this 

71 



72 New Thought Common Sense 

trapeze performer exhibited, I wonder that any man 
or woman can fail in anything attempted. 

When I think of the unfathomed depths of power 
lying in every immortal mmcL I wonder that the world 
is not filled with hosts of successful people. 

There is no such a thing as failure for any one who 
sets forth to his goal, as the trapeze performer set forth 
to attain his aim, and who keeps at his work with the 
same persistency. 

If you are seeking health, wealth, usefulness, skill 
in any direction, there is nothing, and no one, who can 
hinder your attainment of the coveted boon, if you 
are willing to work and wait as the man on the tra- 
peze worked and waited before he reached his present 
superb success: for such excellence in any vocation is 
nothing short of "superb," because it means concentra- 
tion and persistence. 

If you have a habit you want to overcome you can 
do it. i^To control the mind by the mind is as easy as 
to control the laws of gravitation and the movements 
of the body, but both require steady, daily, unremitting 
practice. 

If you want to succeed in any business or profession 
the man-on-the-trapeze should be an inspiration to 
you. 

You may consider yourself a much superior being 
in the social scale and on the intellectual plane, and 
more highly developed spiritually, but you are this 
man's inferior if you are complaining that you have no 
success, and that the world does not use you fairly, 
and that you have no influence, and that only the man 
with a pull wins. 

All this talk proves you to be the inferior of the 
man-on-the-trapeze, who stands at the head of his 



The Trapeze Performer 73 

profession because he kept working, practising and 
trying for the perfection he knew could be won only 
hy Ms own persistent efforts. 

That is all success means. 

Choose your vocation and go ahead. Kothing can 
hinder you hut your own lack of purpose and applica- 
tion. 

Do you possess the power of concentration? 

Can you focus your mind upon any subject for any 
length of time? 

If you believe you can, put the matter to the test. 

Sit down for five minutes (just five minutes before 
the clock strikes the hour) and try and think of only 
one thing. 

Take the word Light, or the word Strength, and 
try to think of the meaning; or take the face of any one 
you love, and think of its features, excluding all other 
thoughts; or imagine the earth before any sign of life 
existed upon it, with only verdure, water and the seas, 
and think of that as a symbol of the word Serenity. 

If you succeed in holding your mind resolutely to 
any one of these ideas for even one minute^ with- 
out the intrusion of twenty other thoughts, you may 
believe yourself well prepared for any mental effort. 

And you may know that you are the exception to 
the rule of intellectual humanity. 

Not one mind in one hundred can do this simple 
thing. 

Not one mind in one hundred in America. 

Mind scattering is almost universal here. 

Our public schools, with all the good things they 
do for the masses, weaken the power of concentration 
in the majority of pupils. 

The average normal child, born with good health 



74 New Thought Common Sense 

and a vigorous body, possesses the ability to hold its 
mind to one thought. 

It is after the mind begins to be crowded with 
a multiplicity of ideas that the thought scattering proc- 
ess sets in. 

Many people imagine that concentration means to 
think of only one subject all the time. 

But the person who does that becomes a mono- 
maniac, and a bore, however he may succeed in his 
chosen line. 

The successful musician, and actor, and w^riter, 
and inventor, is often a being of this kind, and heaven 
preserve us from his society. 

He not only thinks of one subject continually, but 
he talTcs it continually, which makes men and women 
with a repertoire of ideas fly at his approach. There 
is no necessity of this kind of concentration to insure 
success. 

All that is needed is to think of one subject at a 
time; to put all your mental machinery in action on 
that subject. 

If you have selected music as a profession, think, 
talk and dream music for a certain period of time 
each day. 

Drive away all other thoughts while you are work- 
ing on those lines. 

But when you have finished your allotted task, and 
the time you have set apart for this study expires, then 
concentrate upon whatever subject presents itself with 
equal persistency. 

If some friend talks to you of books, fashion or cur- 
rent events do not let your mind roam back to music 
and give but half attention to his conversation. That is 
the way thought scattering begins with many of us; 



The Trapeze Performer 75 

And thought scattering is tenfold more wasteful and 
wicked than time and money scattering. 

Nothing in this life is so precious as our mental 
forces. 

Upon our use of them depends our spiritual de- 
velopment, our usefulness to humanity and our 
physical well being, to a great degree. 

I am not discussing this topic (or any topic) from 
a lofty altitude of one who claims to be a model of 
achievement in that particular line. I discuss it rather, 
and all kindred subjects, as one who has learned the 
need of such discussions from personal experience, 
and innumerable mistakes, and consequent regrets. 

The one remedy for this tendency to idea scatter- 
ing is to put the check of Will upon the mind; to prac- 
tise listening with attention, no matter how slightly 
interested we may be; make the interview short, if the 
topic discussed is boring you, but while you listen in 
seeming, listen in fact. Think of nothing but of what 
you are hearing. Pay absolute attention. No matter 
how trivial the duty you are performing, devote your 
whole mind to its performance. 

Then, when it is accomplished, turn your mental 
powers in some other direction with equal steadiness. 

Let your mind be the search light, and your will 
the hand that turns it from one point to another. 

But while it falls in any one spot, Iceep it steady. 

That is what concentration means. 

That is what the first step to success means. 

It is slow work to regain this lost power. 

It is like regaining lost health. But it can he done. 

Think of only one thing at a time. Focus all your 
faculties on that one while it is the matter under con- 
sideration. 



76 New Thought Common Sense 

Practice of this kind, steadily followed, will make 
you master of your own mind, and master of what- 
ever subject you may choose to consider. 



By lightnings unguided destruction is hurled, 

But chained and directed they gladden the world. 



THE HIGH CALLING OF 
FATHERHOOD 



The High Calling of Fatherhood 

There could be no more important work for a 
nation than the establishing of institutions and the 
training of men and women for the proper knowledge 
of the right generation of human beings. 

New York City provides a fund for a large aqua- 
rium. The Zoo is another city institution where young 
animals are protected before birth and after; and should 
the male animal indicate dangerous tendencies toward 
his mate before the birth of the young, or afterward 
toward his offspring, he is at once placed where he 
cannot do damage. 

No stock breeder would permit his brood animal 
to suffer injury at such a period; she is protected in 
every way in order that her offspring may be strong 
and well. 

Yet all over the United States expectant mothers 
are left to the careless and ignorant treatment of men 
who know no more about the responsibilities of father- 
hood, or of prenatal influences, than they know of 
the social conditions of Mars. 

In the lower walks of life, where people are 
crowded in small rooms and obliged to live in close 
quarters, expectant mothers are forced to endure the 
odors of cheap drink and tobacco, and to hear taunts 
and insults from intoxicated husbands, who have never 
been told that a woman is sensitive to an abnormal 
degree at this period of her life. In the higher 
walks, thousands of mothers are suffering from neglect 
and indifference, or refined abuse, from husbands 

79 



80 New Thought Common Sense 

who are college graduates and who occupy important 
positions socially. 

It would be an admirable undertaking for the Gov- 
ernment to establish in every large city, a free institution 
where such women could pass two or three hours 
each day, with cheerful surroundings: and three or 
four months, at a nominal price, if unfortunately 
situated at home. Whatever the original expense of 
such an undertaking might necessitate, it would be 
saved in a generation by the lessening of disease and 
crime and poverty among the masses. 

Added to this, each college should be obliged to 
add a department through which every young man 
must pass before granted a diploma. The most skilled 
physicians should be employed as instructors in this 
department. It is quite as important to th^ world 
that young men know what it means to propagate 
the species, as that they become such expert athletes 
that Yale conquers Harvard, or Harvard Princeton at 
football. Many cases might be found, if the annals of 
the courts were studied, where men who graduated 
with brilliant honors from famous colleges, proved 
brutal husbands to wives who were expectant mothers. 
The man's brain had been filled with all kinds of 
knowledge save that which gave him an understand- 
ing of fatherhood and motherhood. However dis- 
illusioned or enraged he may become with a woman 
he has chosen as his wife, there is not one man in a 
million who would missuse his own unborn child 
once he knew the vital influence of the mother's 
mind upon it during those months. Women are 
beginning to understand these matters, and mothers 
are awakening to the fact that daughters must be 
educated along these lines, if they ever contemplate 
marriage. 



The High Calling of Fatherhood 81 

But how is it possible for a mother to give her 
child wholesome, and sane and healthful prenatal 
conditions, if men continue to walk in blind, black 
ignorance, and if the laws of the land make no pro- 
vision for the mother's protection, and offer no asylum 
for her retreat from disastrous environment at this 
important time? It is the great work of the future, 
the vital subject of the present. Not until the intel- 
ligent and educated classes realize this and call science 
to aid in the education of men as fathers, can we hope 
for a marked improvement in the human race. 

A woman said recently: "Many and many a poor 
wife does not have the considerate treatment accorded 
her which is given the female horse or dog. Of all 
the animals in the world there is no male that treats 
his mate as inconsiderately as does man, especially at 
the time in her life when she most needs his care. I 
sometimes think that the State should, for its own pro- 
tection, look after poor women in that condition; for 
criminals, idiots and deformities are produced by ill- 
treatment of the mother before she bears the child." 

Now a personal word to you, Mr. Expectant 
Father. 

Your wife is to bear you a child. Whether you 
are pleased or otherwise, you are her collaborator in 
parenthood, and you are the father of an unborn soul. 

Just how are you treating the mother of that help- 
less soul? 

Upon your attitude to your wife depends in a large 
degree the future of your child. The mother's mind 
is like a chisel at work day and night, awake or asleep, 
molding the mind, shaping the body of her child 
and yours. 

If you are tender, loving, considerate and patient, 



82 New Thought Common Sense 

you are causing the best qualities of the human heart 
to be given to your son or daughter. 

If you are harsh, irritable, impatient and selfish, 
you are awakening the unworthy side of your wife's 
nature and giving your offspring a disposition and 
temperament which mean distress for itself and 
others. 

What would you think of a man who was having 
a new mansion built, and who stood at one side and 
threw stones into the plate glass windows and ink 
upon the fresh paint and thrust knives into the newly 
papered walls? Would you not think he was insane 
and deserving of a strait- jacket? 

Yet if you are saying unkind or cruel words to 
your wife; if you are misusing her in any way, or 
wounding her feelings, or failing to give her the 
tenderest care and protection and love at this time, 
you are doing a far more insane and reckless act than 
the wrecking of a house would indicate. 

You are marring an immortal soul, besides leaving 
scars upon the heart of the woman you chose to be 
the mother of your children. 

Science is doing much to exterminate dangerous 
insects and reptiles and savage beasts from the earth. 
It is being done in the interests of humanity, it is said. 

But the most dangerous beast to humanity today, 
the most awful monster on earth, is the father who 
maltreats and misuses the mother of an unborn child. 

Yet they are allowed to live and thrive by hun- 
dreds in every class of society. Little or nothing is 
done to educate men in this matter. Money is being 
sent to Japan and India, where motherhood is regarded 
as sacred, to convert the heathen to our religion, 
while our own Christian men are crushing the souls 



The High Calling of Fatherhood 83 

out of expectant mothers every day in the year, either 
by indifference and neglect or absolute cruelty. 

There is no time in life when a woman so needs 
the friendship of her husband as during this wonderful 
parental period. 

If his heart is with her and he is unselfish, thought- 
ful and kind, and full of sympathy, then the months 
are the most beautiful, the most holy, the most sublime 
that can come to mortal. 

If he is the reverse, they are one continual 
Gethsemane. *» 

No man, however, sympathetic or wise in scientific 
knowledge, can form the least idea of the condition of 
a woman's nervous system at this time. 

It is an experience only mothers can understand. 

Not one man in a hundred thousand ever hears the 
prenatal period referred to before he enters upon the 
duties of fatherhood himself. 

Your education in this matter was probably neg- 
lected. I am trying to give you a kindergarten lesson 
right here. 

For the sake of your unborn child, if not for the 
sake of human decency and the wife you married, let 
what I have said sinlc in, and make you treat your 
child's mother with affection and kindness until your 
baby is born. 

Then if you cannot develop enough manhood to 
keep up the treatment I hope she will take her baby 
and go away where she can bring it up peacefully. 

If you saw a man sticking pins into a small, helpless 
baby in its cradle would you not feel impelled to 
knock him down? Well, every time you say a cruel, 
mean word to your w^ife you are doing an act like that 
— a coward's act. 



84 New Thought Common Sense 



Immortal Life is something to be earned 

By slow selt-conquest, comradeship with pain 

And patient seeking after higher truths. 



THE HIGH CALLING OF 
MOTHERHOOD 



The High Calling of Motherhood 

It is not so much what you are doing, my dear 
madame, before your child is born, as what you are 
thinking , which molds its character. 

Over and over I would reiterate what I believe to 
be a great truth — children inherit the suppressed 
tendencies of their parents — those things of which the 
parents think and dream and long to do. 

Therefore, cultivate your mind to dwell upon 
good and worthy and beautiful desires. Read tales of 
noble achievements and histories of great characters, 
and infuse all your thoughts with high aspirations. 

A story comes to me from a personal friend who 
sings. Before the birth of her son she sang hours at a 
time day after day, and week after week. Her voice 
was in excellent condition, and she gave full vent to 
her song impulses. 

The child cries at the sound of music and shows 
an evident distaste for it. He is nearly eight years 
old now and cannot carry the simplest air. This is 
because the mother exhausted her own desire to sing 
during the prenatal period. 

Had she thought of music, listened to it and 
enjoyed it mentally and with the imagination, it is 
more than probable that her child would have been 
musical. Mothers who exhaust their nervous systems 
in any line of endeavor do not bestow the ability to 
achieve in this same line upon their children. 

The camera which receives the impression must he 
still, 

87 



88 New Thought Common Sense 

If you would give your child certain qualities learn 
to he still, to think, and to feel strongly and earnestly. 

Watch yourself that you do not indulge in disagree- 
able moods toward any one. Forgive your enemies 
and wish them well. Cast out bitterness and anger. 
You are no longer your own mistress, remember; you 
belong to your unborn child. Your responsibility is 
tremendous. 

A woman who permitted her thoughts to dwell on 
vicious and dishonest themes sent two hundred crimi- 
nals into the world in four generations. 

So powerful was her concentration of vicious 
thought, that she was like a poisoned spring, which 
sends out its death-dealing streams over the land. 

Do not permit your eyes to rest upon deformity or 
ugliness for any length of time if you can avoid it. If 
you are compelled to be in its presence, close your 
eyes and imagine beauty all about you. 

When you fall asleep picture beautiful things in 
your mind and ask all good angels to guard you and 
your child. 

Believe you are to bring a blessing into the world. 

The expectant mother should avoid reading or 
thinking or talking about cruelty, sin, folly, or sorrow. 
She should hear all the good music possible, look at 
beautiful pictures and objects in nature, and, if she 
desires her child to possess some one talent, let her 
read the lives of men and women who have been 
known in that especial work, and think about them 
after she closes the book. 

Much outdoor life and deep breathing of pure air 
will help to produce a robust child with strong lung's. 

One hundred deep inhalations should be taken 
every morning with closed lips, and the whole lungs 



The High Calling of Motherhood 89 

filled with fresh air. During the daily promenade, 
inhale while taking seven steps, and think of the seven 
most important qualities you would wish your child 
to possess, such as goodness, health, wisdom, talent, 
beauty, affection, influence. 

With each breath believe you are inhaling one of 
these qualities from God's great reservoir for your 
child. 

Then exhale slowly, and repeat the exercise until 
slightly weary. 

Avoid thinking of any one you do not like, or 
dwelling on disagreeable or annoying events. 

When depressed moods come, get out in the open 
air and begin your breathing exercises. 

Think of all the noble people who have made 
the world better for living in it, and ask at your 
library for books about the great philanthropists and 
philosophers, poets, painters and artists. 

Cultivate a reverent state of mind — look at the 
stars, and realize how grand and glorious is this uni- 
verse, and how wonderful the Creator who conceived 
and carried out the design. Worship Him with all 
your heart, and remember that your child is a reflec- 
tion of Him, and believe that you are to be the mothef 
of one of God's own kin. 

Thank Him hourly for the great privilege of 
motherhood, and let no worry or anxiety regarding 
the future depress you. Say, — I am that most sacred 
thing on earth, an expectant mother — I am chosen by 
God for a great work — and all will be well with me. 

If you keep in this frame of mind, all will be well 
with you and with your child. 



90 New Thought Common Sense 



Whoever was begotten by pure love, 
And came desired and welcomed into life, 
Is of immaculate conception. 



THOUGHT BUILDING FOR 
CHILDREN 



Thought Building for Children 

What are you doing to prevent your children from 
annoying others? 

The fact that they do not annoy you is not suffi- 
cient; the fact that you find them the most interesting 
and remarkable children in the world is not convinc- 
ing, and the fact that they are exceptionally bright and 
intelligent or astonishingly intellectual, even, has noth- 
ing to do with the discussion. 

Have you taught your boys that they are to wait 
for all women and all older people to pass through a 
door or into a public conveyance? Or do you permit 
them to push and jostle their way through a company 
or crowd and monopolize the most desirable places in 
vehicles? 

It is so seldom one finds an American lad of any 
class who steps aside to let a woman precede him in 
public places, that he attracts immediate attention 
when he is encountered. 

The average boy thrusts his elbows against the ribs 
of the man or woman beside him and dives forward 
into car or omnibus at the risk of tripping the unwary 
or toppling over the weak, and if this occurs, no 
word of apology is ever heard from the lips of Master 
Stars and Stripes. 

I have yet to hear an American parent reprove 
a child for a performance of this kind. But when 
others have administered reproof he has met with 
"fond parents' " defense, "He is only a boy. He didn't 

93 



94 New Thought Common Sense 

mean it, of course. One can't expect children to be 
thoughtful as their elders," and so on. 

But one can expect their elders to teach them the 
rudiments of behavior. 

Have you told your children that the toothpick 
should no more be employed in public than the tooth- 
brush, or do you allow your representatives to parade 
through public halls and sit on verandas and in draw- 
ing rooms, or even at table, and wield this disgusting 
weapon ? 

If you have neglected this very important item in 
their education, let me beg of you to instruct them 
from this hour forward to attend to their toilet matters 
in privacy and without compulsory witnesses. 

If your children say that well-dressed men and 
women commit this same offense against decency and 
good taste, assure them that they were unfortunate in 
having no well-bred parents to teach them better 
manners, and that they are not to be emulated, but 
pitied. 

Have you spoken to your daughters regarding their 
high-pitched voices, or do you hear them shriek 
through house, hotel and street like the steamboat 
whistle or the trolley gong, with no word of protest? 

And do you smilingly say, "MoUie is ro full of life, 
you can always tell when she is around." 

Do you train your boys and girls when at table to 
wait until the process of mastication is finished before 
indulging in active conversation? 

Are your children allowed to stand upon the seats 
of public conveyances with dusty and muddy feet? 

Do they interrupt the conversation of older people, 
with no apology, and enter rooms with the whoop of 
wild Indians on the ^varpath? 



Thought Building for Children 95 

There is no amount of education you can bestow 
upon your boys and girls which will make them cul- 
tured or well-bred members of society unless you 
build this groundwork of decent manners and habits 
in their early youth. 

For now the plastic brain cells are being formed, 
and you are the potter who can shape your children 
as you will, if you care to give the great work your 
careful, loving attention. 

I talked recently with a gifted young man, whose 
only obstacle to great success in his chosen work is 
lack of sdf -confidence. This man was brought up by 
a father who continually ridiculed his son, in early 
youth, in order to prevent him from becoming 
egotistical. 

Whatever the boy attempted to do, the father 
declared impossible, and laughed at his conceit for 
supposing he possessed the requisite qualities for such 
an endeavor. 

The son was specially dowered by nature and 
temperament for the dramatic profession and is now 
playing in third-class companies, while he would be 
a capable leading man in the best theatrical com- 
panies, had he been encouraged and made to helieve in 
himself. 

"Always when I approach a manager," he said, "I 
shrink in my own estimation, and remember things 
my father said to me of my egotism and presumption. 
And the manager, of course, takes my own estimate 
of myself, and I do not get the role I want." 

There are many mothers making the same deplora- 
ble mistake with a young daughter. 

They are so concerned lest the girl become vain 
and silly with pride of beauty or attainments, that they 



96 New Thought Common Sense 

ridicule her personal appearance, and her mental 
achievements. 

A beautiful and accomplished woman assured a 
friend that she suffered agonies when entering a room 
because of her mother's ridicule during her adolescence. 

The very first duty a parent owes a child is to give 
that child confidence in itself. 

Such confidence is not egotism. It can accompany 
modesty and humility of spirit, if properly developed. 

There was a little boy who gave evidence, in early 
childhood, of unusual literary talent. 

*'You are gifted by the Creator," his parents told 
him, "and you will one day make a name which shall 
be known all over the world. You must study and 
observe and grow, and write as you feel." , 

Every crude effort was praised, and the boy grew 
up with a belief in his talents, which the future justi- 
fied, and the world acknowledged his gifts in early 
life. 

Praise and encouragement from parents are the 
foundation of success for many a man and woman; 
and ridicule and discouragement from the same source 
have caused many a human being's failure to reach 
the heights. 

Believe in your children and teach them to believe 
in themselves. It is better than giving them an 
inheritance of houses and lands. 

Children can be educated in the finer things of life, 
and given high standards without knowing they are 
being taught, if the parents possess tact and forethought 

As you walk along the streets with your children, 
what do you talk about? 

Are you calling their attention to the shop Avindows 
and sighing to think that you cannot buy all the beau- 



Thought Building for Children 97 

tiful things displayed to whet the appetite for adorn- 
ment? 

Do you reply to their importuning for toys and 
articles of clothing by the statement that you are "too 
poor" to buy these things, and then do you follow this 
remark by exclamations of admiration and envy over 
the handsome equipages, with richly gowned occu- 
pants, and say, "It must be lovely to be rich?" 

If this is your method of entertaining your children 
it would be far wiser to leave them at home. 

You are educating them in discontent, jealousy 
and a false idea of what constitutes happiness. 

You are awakening a precocious longing for wealth 
and display and creating those "class distinctions" 
which so many good people declare are created by 
the "sensational newspapers." 

If you see a man or boy pushing ahead of women 
through doors or into cars and stages, say to your boy 
how sorry you should be to have him so rude. 

Impress upon him the necessity of politeness and 
courtesy in public places as an attribute of manliness. 

Thank him when he opens a door for you or steps 
aside for you to enter a car, or when he rises to give 
another a seat. 

In all these small and simple ways you can be 
giving your children the foundation of a most valu- 
able education. 

It lies in the power of the mother to make her 
children what she desires them to be if she begins 
early enough and keeps at the task day after day. 

A child's brain is being built the first fourteen years 
of life, and it is the mother's privilege to direct the 
structure and awaken the noblest and most admirable 
qualities bv giving them thought exercises. 



98 New Thought Common Sense 

Each thought which passes through a child's mind 
is leaving its physical impress on the brain and making 
that thought easier to occur again. Pave the way for 
good and great thoughts. 



Rejoice in w^illing service ; 
Who loves will labor most. 



THE NEW THOUGHT OF 
ECONOMY 



The New Thought of Economy 

One of the first lessons drilled into the youthful 
brain by the gimlet of continual homilies is the idea of 
economy. 

"Waste not, want not:" "Save the pennies and 
the dollars will take care of themselves," and a score of 
other old adages are given the young mind, to train it 
in the way it should go. 

But while economy is a virtue, parsimony is a 
crime; and few parents draw a distinction between 
the two in talking to their children. I believe in sav- 
ing a portion of one's earnings; I believe in keeping in 
advance of necessity, because it means usefulness, 
instead of dependence; lifting, instead of leaning; 
hopefulness, instead of fear, m facing the future. 

But of two misfortunes, I would rather see a child 
lean toward extravagance, if that extravagance were 
coupled with generosity, than toward a miserly tend- 
ency to accumulate and save. 

Nothing dwarfs the whole nature more than parsi- 
mony. A young man whose leading thought is econ^ 
omy, and who counts every cent over and over with 
miserly care before indulging in a necessary expendi- 
ture or a graceful courtesy toward a friend, is certain 
to grow narrow m his sympathies and prejudiced in 
his opinions, and, like a dwarfed, perverted vine, his 
tendrils will turn in and cling about himself instead of 
reaching out to adorn the world. 

If you are just setting forth in life with an ambition 
to achieve, let generosity stand side by side with 

101 



102 New Thought Common Sense 

economy in your heart. If they are not there naturally, 
plant the seeds and water them well, and expose the 
soil to the sun of Love. 

They will grow, and great will be the harvest. 

If you earn enough to save a few dollars a month 
out of your wages, make a rule of investing at least 
one dollar in some good cause for humanity. Do not 
give it to the first street beggar or the first professional 
letter-writer who asks — that will be encouraging 
pauperism — but find some one more needy than 
yourself or more unfortunate, and plant your seed of 
generosity both for the sake of the one who will be 
benefited and for your own moral growth. 

While the deplorable and unworthy conditions 
continue to exist which make "tipping" waiters and 
domestics in restaurants and hotels an accepted part 
of service, do not try to shirk this custom. 

If you can afford to frequent such places (with no 
matter what economy) you can afford to "tip" your 
attendant. You can never reform the country nor 
institute new laws by denying a waiter a fee, though 
many "reformers" go no farther than this in their 
efforts at Socialism. 

And you can dwarf your own nature by trying to 
save a few dimes and quarters in this mean and 
unworthy fashion. 

Give something, a few pennies, if no more, now 
and then, to aid the animal protective society and the 
humane educational organizations. 

Children and animals never impose upon charity, 
and you may be sure whatever you do in their behalf 
is well bestowed. 

Consider all such use of your small earnings as 
seed well planted. So surely as you cultivate this 



The New Thought of Economy 103 

spirit of generosity and helpfulness so surely shall 
prosperity attend your effort as the years pass, and so 
surely shall your enterprises meet with success. 

Besides this you will act as a stimulant to others 
who have more means to bestow : and your few dol- 
lars shall be augmented by other dollars until an end- 
less chain is formed, and tight purses shall be opened 
and hard hearts softened by your example. 

Never for an instant allow yourself to fear poverty 
and dependence. There is a type of so-called gener- 
osity which leads to the Almshouse. Many a man 
who is called **a generous, open-hearted fellow, who 
puts his hand in his pocket for every friend," dies 
bankrupt and homeless. But investigation will prove 
it is his wastefulness ^ outside of his generosity, which 
brings the disaster. 

Nothing is wasted which we give willingly and 
lovingly to others, even if we find it was not worthily 
bestowed, for the impulse left its benefit on our lives 
and characters; but the money spent in show, display 
and dissipation, in feasting and in extravagant enter- 
taining in a desire to outdo our neighbors, or to make 
our enemies jealous, that indeed is the waste which 
leads to want. 

Back of each visible being stands a host of invisi- 
bles, and by the nature of your thoughts and desires 
and ambitions you determine the class of these invisi- 
bles who come at bidding to lend countenance and 
strength to your undertakings. 

Decide for yourself whether you desire the co- 
operation of the earth-bound gourmand, drunkard and 
race-track suicide, the miser and money-hoarder, or 
the great Spirits of Light, who were the philanthropists 
and helpers of earth when here. 



104 New Thought Common Sense 

We choose our unseen companions as we choose 
our earthly associates, and by the company we keep 
are we known here and beyond. 

Were I the mother of a marriageable daughter ^I 
should hesitate to see her become the wife of a man 
noted primarily for his economy. The influence of a 
man upon a woman in matters concerning money is 
far-reaching and subtle; I have known a woman of 
financial independence and generous proclivities to 
become utterly transformed by marriage with a 
man whose one idea of hfe was the accumulation of 
money. 

And let this mania take root in a nature and it 
renders it impervious even to the fear of ridicule and 
scorn of associates; for such a man believes always 
that in the long run his money will make him a power 
and bring him the respect he is forfeiting by his petty 
meannesses along the way. 

But that is an error which he either discovers too 
late or else remains in ignorance of to the end, which 
is sadder still. 

The man or woman who waits until fortune is won 
to be generous in small matters remains a miser to the 
end of life. Generosity is a plant which does not grow in 
a night. It needs cultivating, guiding and pruning. 
Then its flowers are beautiful — its fruits precious. 



No fabled fall of Adam 
Can chain you to the sod ; 
You are the child of glory, 
The messenger of God. 



WHAT IS A GOOD 
WOMAN ? 



What Is a Good Woman? 

There are good women; there are better women; 
there are best women. 

There are comparatively good 'svomen, positively 
good women, and superlatively good women ; and all 
these definitions are modified by time, place, climate 
and temperament. 

No woman could be called good who walked down 
Fifth avenue attired only in a loin cloth and a string of 
beads; yet in Central Africa women walk abroad in 
such an attire who are as good as they know how to 
be — loyal wives, devoted mothers and dutiful 
daughters. 

Good women appear in public places and before 
men here in America with uncovered faces and 
shoulders; but in Turkey no good woman could do 
this, because it is not the custom, and would offend. 

The good woman does not offend purposely or 
wantonly. She submits to the inconveniences and 
discomforts of tradition until she can see some reason- 
able prospect of bettering the race by defying the 
conventions. 

The comparatively good woman lives a harmless 
life, avoids wounding any one, and submits to all 
manner of injustice at the hands of society — because 
she dislikes to make a fuss, or attract attention, or 
disturb existing orders. 

The positively good woman lives an actively good 
life, under the same conditions, putting herself to 
great trouble to help others, and to overcome the 

107 



108 New Thought Common Sense 

results of injustice without essaying to remove the 
cause. 

The superlatively good woman does all this and 
more. She attends to the nearest duty first— relieves 
distress and bestows sympathy; but she is brave 
enough to attempt an attack on established traditions 
when they stand in the way of the progress of the 
human race, even though the attacks bring suffering 
and pain upon herself. Mary Livermore, Julia Ward 
Howe, Victoria Woodhull, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. 
Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were all superla- 
tively good women. Refined, sensitive and beautiful 
souls, they suffered from the brutality and ignorance 
of the world when they gave their lives to the destruc- 
tion of moss-grown traditions which had become 
breeders of pestilence, and undertook the construc- 
tion of the great, broad edifice where woman dwells 
today. 

The merely good woman does no evil. She keeps 
the Commandments, and is happy in being harmless. 

The better woman does no evil and strives also 
to do good v/here it comes in her way. 

The best woman does no evil, does much good, 
and goes out of her way to inspire and encourage 
those who have been doing wrong to new aspirations 
and endeavors. 

The good woman never speaks ill of the absent. 
She is silent when others condemn. 

The better woman speaks well of the absent — 
when it is possible to do so. 

The best woman defends the absent, even at the 
risk of offending those persons who are prone to 
condemn. 

The good woman is satisfied with being good. 



What Is a Good Woman? 109 

The best woman is continually at work upon her 
character to make it better. 

The really good woman is a good daughter, sister, 
wife, mother and friend. She may be simple, humble, 
uneducated and poor, yet if she fulfils her duty in all 
these relations she is the best of women, for they 
invariably call forth the highest qualities of human 
nature and often demand self-denial, self-sacrifice and 
self-control. 

Many women consider themselves *'good" because 
they possess chastity. 

Chastity is only one virtue. I have known chaste 
viragos who would have made suitable consorts for 
Beelzebub. 

I have known chaste scandal -mongers who were 
neighborhood assassins — slaying characters with their 
adder tongues. 

There are models of chastity and virtue who are 
reckless spendthrifts, wasting hard-earned money in 
needless ways. 

The good woman knows how to curb her temper, 
how to be charitable in speech, how to economize 
her expenditures. 

It requires courage, self-control and unselfishness 
for a woman to practise common sense economy 
when surrounded by extravagance and folly. In the 
heart of fashionable society some such good w^omen 
may be found. 

It requires the same virtues and faith and trust in 
God's wisdom added for a woman to be cheerful, kind 
and patient while her heart is starved all her life for 
the refinements and pleasures of existence; yet many 
such women are to be found in homes of poverty — 
good women who rejoice in the success and happiness 



110 New Thought Common Sense 

of others, while fated to live a life of hard work and 
loneliness from the cradle to the grave. In shops, 
factories and kitchens, there are good women doing 
distasteful work patiently, and cheerfully using their 
earnings for others dependent upon them. 

There are good women who stand by bad hus- 
bands, because they believe it their duty, and because 
they hope for ultimate reformation. 

There are good women who leave bad husbands 
because they realize that self-respect, or the salvation 
of their children, demands it. 

Any woman who lives up to her highest under- 
standing of duty, is a good ^voman, no matter how 
others may differ in their ideas of what constitutes 
duty. 

The girl who gives up her ambition for an educa- 
tion in order to remain at home and care for aging 
parents is a good girl; but another may prove a better 
girl who pushes ahead and secures her education in 
order that she can give her parents a more desirable 
home eventually. 

The highest unselfishness must sometimes suffer 
from the misconstruction of the world, which regards 
it as selfishness. 

We are all a little better or a little worse than we 
were last year this time; a little stronger or a little 
weaker; a little wiser or a little duller. 

There is no such thing as remaining stationary. 
The world turns on its axis — the sun, stars, planets, all 
revolve. Even the rocks are composed of millions of 
ever-moving atoms. So the mind of the mortal is 
always doing its work and making or unmaking the 
character. 

It is for you to decide as you analyze your own 



What Is a Good Woman? Ill 

life whether you are a good woman or not; whether 
you are as good as you know how to be ; and whether 
you are better this vear than you were last. 



1 12 New Thought Common Sense 



Then let your secret thoughts be fair; 
They have a vital part and share 
In shaping worlds and molding fate, 
God's system is so intricate. 



THE COLOR OF YOUR 
THOUGHTS 



The Color of Your Thoughts 

Do COLORS affect you? Are you conscious that 
certain shades of color give you pleasurable and happy 
sensations, and others irritate you, and others incline 
you to despondency? 

If so, do not consider it an evidence of incipient 
insanity or blame yourself for being "queer." 

Color plays a larger part in the every-day world 
than most of us suspect. 

Here is what a noted physician, a graduate of the 
"old school," although he has gone forward into more 
progressive ideas, told me. 

We were talking of the marvelous results which 
have been obtained by medical science from the 
employment of violet and X-rays in curing supposedly 
incurable diseases. 

The physician showed me two plaster casts he had 
removed from the legs of a small boy, who had worn 
them for years, and who was pronounced incurable 
by the leading specialists in such maladies; yet, after 
some months of treatment under the violet and X-rays, 
the plaster casts were removed, and the little boy is 
rolling his hoop in the street, well and happy. 

"We are discovering new wonders daily," the 
doctor said. "In many hospitals now they are placing 
red curtains about the beds of smallpox patients. It 
has been proven that light falling through red curtains 
prevents the pitting of the patient. There is a chemi- 
cal property in red which produces this welcome 
result. 

115 



116 New Thought Common Sense 

"Just so in violet; there are chemical properties 
which aid in the cure of other maladies. 

"Color is now a recognized factor in the progressive 
medical world. And we are only in the morning of 
our discoveries. The world will be astonished in ten 
years' time at the revolution which will take place in 
the science of medical therapeutics. Drugs are fast 
becoming obsolete; the knife will be less popular, and 
only in extreme cases, and in accidents, will it event- 
ually be used by reputable surgeons. Liglit has come 
to take the place of old, ignorant methods." 

Then the physician took me into a private room, 
where sat a young man of twenty-one years, for three 
months a patient of the light cure. The mother of the 
youth was present, and told me of the remarkable 
effect violet and X-ray treatment had produced on 
her son. 

"For six years my boy had been growing steadily 
worse with inflammatory rheumatism," she said. "For 
one year before he came here he was confined to his 
bed, unable to move without excruciating pain. The 
best specialists in Greater New York assured me he 
w^ould never leave his bed save for his tomb ; yet, in 
three months' time he is able to walk on crutches, and 
to sit up four hours a day." 

Let there he light in the old medical school, since 
such things as these are taking place about us. 

Meantime, let us study color, and realize that it has 
its place, aside from the decorative, in God's wonder- 
ful scheme of a beautiful world. Every color indicates 
a certain rate of vibration of light. It also represents 
a certain sound vihration. Light, sound, color are all 
related, then, and all affect the mental and physical 
well-being of humans. 



The Color of Your Thoughts 117 

Long ago the seers of the world said these things, 
and it is gratifying to find physical science corroborat- 
ing the statements of the ''wise men of old." 

Thousands of years ago it was written and said 
that each mortal had an "aura," and that by its color 
the psychic eye could determine the thoughts of 
another, whether sad or glad, gloomy or hopeful, angry 
or loving. 

In London a year or two ago a scientific corrobora- 
tion of this theory was produced by a chemically pre- 
pared screen, which brought out the colors surround- 
ing the head of any one sitting in front of it, and, oddly 
enough, the mental states of each person corresponded 
with the colors the wise people thousands of years 
ago had declared such thoughts would produce; the 
brown ''aura" despondency, the pink, love. 

Let us open the windows of our souls and minds 
to all these glorious ne^v discoveries. They are com- 
ing thick and fast in the next decade. 

And by and by, after a century or two passes, all 
mortals may develop the psychic eye and be enabled 
to "see" the thoughts of one another. 

Since many such people exist to-day all about us, 
it behooves us to cultivate a "pink aura" by loving 
thoughts, and to avoid anger and evil passions, which 
display themselves in sullen red rays ; or despondency, 
which clothes itself in muddy brown. 

The pink aura, by all means ! 



1 18 New Thought Common Sense 



I hold it true that thoughts are things 
Endowed with bodies, breath and wings, 
And that we send them forth to fill 
The world with good results or ill. 



"IN GOD WE TRUST" 



"In God We Trust" 

A CURIOUS thing is to be seen at the St. Frances 
Hotel, San Francisco, Cal., that wonderful phoenix 
hotel which has risen from its ashes, just as beautiful 
and busy and optimistic as before the earthquake, and 
now, as then, one of the best hotels in the world. 

At the desk they show you a twenty dollar gold 
piece which was found under burning bricks and in 
the debris of the office after the work of clearing out 
began. The face of Liberty is burned away; so are 
the wings of the eagle, but clear and bright remain the 
words: ''In God We Trust r 

And surely nowhere in the whole world, and 
never in the annals of history, can be found a greater 
proof of a trust in the "Divinity Within" than has been 
exhibited and is being exhibited by the people of 
San Francisco. 

It would be an excellent thing if the men and 
women who have met with large or small losses in the 
East during the recent money panics could visit the 
Pacific Coast and realize what real loss — real disaster 
— means. And see there, too, what real courage and 
real trust means. 

There are no melancholy faces in San Francisco. 

There is no talk of hard luck and misfortune. 

People tell you they lost everything they had, and 
that they are beginning life all over again, but they 
show you how wonderful has been their progress, 
instead of giving you the details of how vast their 
misfortunes. 

121 



122 New Thought Common Sense 

Men who have been accustomed to warerooms 
and offices occupying a block, are working cheerfully 
in two small rooms, while planning to reach a position 
to rebuild on the old large scale. 

Women who have been accustomed to carriages 
and servants and luxury are turning their accomplish- 
ments into the means of earning a living; teaching 
music; doing fine sewing, acting as companions or 
clerks, and performing their duties with cheerfulness 
and courage and thankfulness. 

And it is that amazing and glorious spirit which 
has already rebuilt the city to such an astonishing 
degree, and will build it up to be a far greater and 
more beautiful city than it has ever been in the past. 

These same people who are showing this colossal 
courage no doubt used to make themselves miserable 
over trifles; over the loss of a small investment; over 
the incompetence of domestics; and the failure of a 
tailor to fit a coat or gown properly doubtless caused 
them unhappiness for days "before the quake." 

It sometimes seems that it is because so many of us 
waste life and emotion over the trifling worries of 
existence that the great calamities are sent now and 
then to wake the nobility in human nature, the real 
heroism which comes forth in times of universal 
disaster. 

What a great and glorious world this might be if 
we always kept the attitude toward one another which 
prevails in the hour of flood and fire and earthquake! 

If we forgot the foolish distinctions of classes, and 
just thought of one another as God's children, all push- 
ing forward to safety, all hungry for peace, all seeking 
shelter in the arms of Eternal Love ! 

And if our hearts were always wide open to the 



"In God We Trust" 123 

same emotions of sympathy and helpfulness that move 
in us at some crucial hour ! 

Oh, the pity of it, that we wait for some colossal 
disaster to awaken in us the real spirit of universal 
love! 

But when you begin to feel blue about your losses, 
and worried over your poor luck, stop a bit and think 
what fate befell the people of San Francisco. Imagine 
yourself stripped of every earthly possession, and 
standing beside the ash heaps of a great city, and then 
realize, if you can, what the motto on that half-burned 
coin means — ''Iji God We Trust.'' 

The omnipotence of the Creator of this universe, 
who creates it over and over after each destruction, 
lies in the soul of each man and woman. It lies in you. 

If your life seems to be in ruins, if it is in ruins, 
you can rebuild it with divine help, by acknowledging 
and using the divine power you possess. Just as San 
Francisco is being rebuilt, more splendid than before 
the destruction, so can you rebuild your own life, for- 
tune, health and happiness. 

Press on! Achieve! Achieve! 



124 New Thought Common Sense 



God ! what a world, if men in street and mart 
Kept that same impulse of the human heart 
That makes them, in the hour of fire and flood 
Show the great meaning of True Brotherhood. 



ARE YOU ALIVE? 



Are You Alive? 

Wandering over this big little world, and studying 
the people in many lands, one must be impressed 
with the vast preponderance of living dead creatures, 
who cumber the earth with their bodies, and rob the 
air of its oxygen, and disturb the silence with their 
complaints. 

People whose minds are dead to every thought 
save the needs of the body; whose souls are asleep so 
soundly that they are deaf to the call continually sound- 
ing through space to each immortal spirit on every 
sphere — the call come higher — and whose bodies are, 
in consequence, sources of discomfort, pain, misery 
and disease, or else of trivial worry. 

With thoughts bound to the wheel of physical 
anxieties, the days go around and around, and their 
minds rise never beyond what to eat, what to wear, 
what to do to find amusement, what to do to "get 
even" with somebody for a fancied wrong, or to "get 
ahead" of a rival; how to get well of this and that 
ailment; what to take to obtain personal strength ; and, 
for a slight variation of thought, how to make a fortune 
in a hurry. 

For mental recreation, they indulge in criticisms of 
others who have erred, who have fallen by the way- 
side, or who have risen too high upon the wave of 
fortune. 

There are thousands, and tens of thousands — yes, 
millions — of such people on earth. 

Are you one of these ? 

127 



128 New Thought Common Sense 

If you are, know you are that which you live in 
dread of becoming, you are dead. The real you is 
already, like John Brown's body, "moldering in the 
grave" of your own digging. 

But if you are willing to roll the stone of self away 
and bid the Christ within you rise, you can hring 
yourself to life. 

You do not need any conversion by a churchman ; 
you do not need to subscribe to any creed ; you do not 
need any change of heart, save the getting rid of your 
selfish, narrow, dull w^ay of looking at life. 

All you need is to say to yourself: ''I am awaTce; I 
am alive to every glorious truth in tliis wonderful 
world; I am an immortal soul and tlicre is nothing 
hut light, joy, health and power for me.'' \>^ 

Then begin your morning with a resolve taf-.find 
the beautiful and good things in the day, in tjie 
weather, in the work you have to do, in the people 
you meet. 

If the weather greets you with bluster and wind 
and rain and snow and fog, light it up with your own 
spirit of sunshine. 

I have "known people so radiant that they made 
every one who approached them forget the weather. 

If your work is distasteful, love it into shape, and 
keep in your mind a desire for something better and 
more congenial, and make yourself worthy of such 
work when it comes your v/ay. No matter how 
uncongenial your task is to-day, consider it a blessing 
that you have employment, and push along to better 
things. 

Everything comes when we are fully ready. The 
law never fails. You may believe yourself worthy of 
better things than have fallen to your lot, but there is 



Are You Alive? 129 

some reason, some cause in yourself, if you have not 
what you desire. 

If you encounter people who are disagreeable, he 
so agreeable that you force them into a pleasant mood. 
Bring out the best in everybody by giving them the 
best that is in yourself. 

It was "Madeline Bridges," that gifted poet who has 
said so many beautiful things, who put this great truth 
into simple words : 

"Give to the world the best you have, 
And the best shall come to you." 

Just so sure as you live these lines, so sure shall be 
your reward. But to do all this you must be alive. 

Alive every hour of the day, and all of you; brain, 
soul and body must be alive. Once you roll the stone 
away and come forth, alive, you will vibrate at such a 
rate that worry, disease, poverty, despondency, gloom 
and melancholy will be unable to stay with you. 

They can only attach themselves to atoms in a 
slow and low rate of vibration — to minds that are 
virtually dead. 

There is no excuse for idleness, despondency and 
despair in this world, so long as you are alive. 

However hopeless the outlook may seem to you, 
however difficult the path before you, you can find the 
way to independence and success if you never let go. 

It may require a long time. But if you had your 
choice to-day — to stay in a dark, foggy valley and 
slowly starve to death, or to climb a steep, long moun- 
tain road which required years of endeavor and 
fatigue, yet led to comfort and beauty at the top — you 
would, I am sure, start at once up the mountain. 



130 New Thought Common Sense 

No matter what boulders lay ahead, you would 
try and climb over. No matter what wild animals 
roamed over the mountain, you would face all the 
trials and dangers sooner than stay in the valley and 
die a slow death. 

That is precisely what you want to do now. 

To give up all individual effort because there are 
trusts and monopolies in the land is to stay in the 
valley and die of inaction. To push on in a deter- 
mined and never-give-up state of mind, is to succeed 
in spite of every tiling. 

If you chance to see some other pilgrim on the 
road, riding in an automobile while you walk, do not 
at once jump to the conclusion that he is your enemy 
and that he has robbed and cheated his fellow men 
to procure his method of easy locomotion. 

Such thoughts will take your force and vitality 
away from the object you have in view, and will harm 
you, while they may wrong your neighbor. It would 
be well for you to find out how he came to own an 
automobile before you condemn him as a greedy 
monopolist. Perhaps he built it with his own skill 
and labor, paying honest dollars for the materials. 

I have known a fisherman to get along a lifetime 
with a leaky boat and one oar, and to go about "scull- 
ing," thinking it was the only way he could do; while 
another fisherman, with no greater advantages, used his 
spare hours in studying machinery, and built himself a 
small launch, with which he explored deeper waters 
and caught larger fish. This man was not a monopo- 
list and owed no poorer neighbors an apology for 
having better means of locomotion than they. 

It has grown to be the habit of the unsuccessful 
to class all people who possess comforts and conven- 



Are You Alive? 131 

iences in one mass with the idle, selfish, and ofttimes 
dishonest, rich. 

There are millionaires who came by their wealth 
through criminal methods. 

There are capitalists who grind the poor and wrong 
their fellow men. But it is well to remember that 
there are also honest, noble, unselfish people with for- 
tunes, and capitalists who are a blessing to the world, 
to the laboring classes and to humanity. 

No more unjust and absurd idea ever existed than 
that mistaken impression of the very poor that all rich 
or even comfortable people are their enemies and 
their despoilers. 

Equally erroneous is the idea that only the poor 
have troubles, cares or hardships. 

There are wealthy people who work fourteen 
hours a day with their brains and hands, trying to do 
good to humanity. 

There are men who have become the possessors 
of large fortunes through honest industry and per- 
severance, and who are bowed to the earth by the 
cares and responsibilities of life, and who lie awake 
nights while poorer men sleep, trying to decide just 
what is the kindest, wisest and most unselfish course 
of action to pursue. 

To be the possessor of a comfortable sum of money 
does not mean to be dishonest or unkind, any more 
than poverty means honesty and unselfishness. 

There are all kinds of people in both classes. 

However poor you are, try at least to be just and 
fair in your estimate of others. 

Justice is one of the pillars in character building. 

Make yourself everything that is honest, noble, just 
and deserving, as you climb the mountain of life, and 
be careful before you condemn your fellow men. 



132 New Thought Common Sense 

Wake up! See the magnificent opportunities 
which await the immortal being who is fully alive — 
and press forward to the goal. 



Each of us is heir to the attributes of 
the Creator, and if we seek we find *'the 
Kingdom of Heaven" within. 



SOMETHING ABOUT CELIBACY 



Something About Celibacy 

We are told that Love goes where it is sent. 

But the stubborn and wilful mind of the mortal 
man or woman is ofttimes the sender. 

It seems to be the nature of a certain order of 
men and women to desire what is difScult and dan- 
gerous to possess. 

A woman, brought up in the Protestant religion, has 
been thrown in close association with a Roman Cath- 
olic priest, and she has become infatuated. She 
imagines it to be the passion of a lifetime, and believes 
her whole earthly existence is to be made unhappy 
by this hopeless love. 

She has tried separation and absence, but the love 
still dominates her. **Is it right, is it natural, is it 
necessary,'* she asks, ''for this man to give up all ties 
of home, and wife, and children, to earn God*s 
approval? 

"Do you believe he is following God's will? 

**Does God make human beings with natural emo- 
tions and desires and affections, and then demand 
that they crucify them ? 

"Are they any better when they do crucify them? 

"This priest is the most sunny natured and cheer- 
ful man I have ever seen, but I cannot believe he is 
really satisfied with his life. It seems so unnatural to me ! 

"Do you think the vows of celibacy and poverty 
necessary to the living of a religious life?" 

In answer to these questions I can only voice my 
personal beliefs upon this subject. I am neither a Roman 

135 



136 New Thought Common Sense 

Catholic nor a Protestant. I believe in a Ruling Spirit 
of Intelligence and Love, and in a succession of lives. 
I believe in the immortality of all life, and in the 
existence of innumerable realms about, above and 
below us, where disembodied spirits dwell. And I 
believe that each man should worship the Creator of 
this universe in his own way and according to his own 
ideals and convictions. 

The Protestant clergyman who works among the 
poor and helps to sustain the weak, and to uplift the 
fallen, while he enjoys his home life and performs the 
duties of a good husband and father, is serving God 
in accordance with his ideals. 

The Roman Catholic, or the Hindoo, or the Bud- 
dhist priest who takes the voluntary vows of celibacy 
and poverty and keeps them, devoting all his vital 
powers to religious work and thoughts and aspirations, 
is serving his Creator in Ms way, and whoever tries 
to lead him from his resolutions is doing wrong. 

This applies only to the priests who have volun- 
tarily chosen this life; it does not apply to those 
who have been driven into it by parents, or by tradi- 
tions, and compelled to take up a course which is 
distasteful to them or for which they are eminently 
unfitted. 

No man should become a priest unless from over- 
whelming convictions and a dominating desire to 
devote his whole life to spiritual things. 

Judged from a human standpoint, the vows are 
unnatural, and unless the divine nature of the man is 
uppermost and his spiritual qualities are in excess of 
his moral desires and ambitions, such vows are wrong. 

No parent, no teacher, has the right to say to a 
child, "You must become a priest," unless they are 



Something About Celibacy 137 

confident the boy is born into life with the awakened 
spirituality which will find its truest happiness and its 
widest usefulness in such a career. 

I have known priests who were absolutely happy 
in their self-sacrifice, and who lived so in the spiritual 
plane that the desires and ambitions of the ordinary 
man did not reach them or appeal to them. 

I recall a beautiful young priest of the Roman Cath- 
olic persuasion who had taken his vows from choice, 
and who gloried in his life of poverty and chastity; and 
I recall the greatest soul it was ever my privilege to 
encounter, a Yogi from India, who had overcome the 
objections of his high caste family by his persistent 
clamor for a religious life, and who regarded his vows 
as the greatest privilege a mortal could enjoy. Human 
love and worldly riches and honors held nothing for 
himt he was always in a state of exaltation, always 
enjoying a wealth which beggared the billionaires of 
earth. 

I heard foolish, sentimental and selfish women 
sigh over his sacrifice of home ties and family, incapa- 
ble of understanding the high altitude of the man. I 
heard women say his life was unnatural. Yet to the 
man it was the only natural life possible for him to 
live. ■ He had outlived the domestic existence in past 
incarnations. He was born into earth for a religious 
post-graduate course, and he left his work and his 
example behind him when he passed on. 

But what folly for any parent to attempt to thrust 
such a career upon a son! Priests, and Yogis, and 
great religious masters are horUy not made to order. 
The average human being needs the developing 
experiences of mortal love, marriage and parenthood, 
and they serve God's purposes through being good 
husbands, and wives, and citizens. 



138 New Thought Common Sense 

But because you and I find this life the natural one 
we have no right to insist upon it for the priest, or the 
Sister of Charity, who takes voluntary vows of celi- 
bacy and poverty, and finds joy in keeping them. Nor 
have we the right to try and tempt them to break their 
resolutions. I do not believe it a sin for the man or 
woman vv^ho has taken these vows without due under- 
standing of all they implied, to abandon them. 

I knew a young man who had been sent into 
priesthood as deliberately as his brother was sent into 
the army; he had nothing in his nature to make the 
calling of a priest natural, or agreeable, or holy, and he 
had everything to make him a devoted head of a family 
and a good, shrewd business man. He fell in love and 
married, and is doing the world a good service as a 
kind husband and father and a charitable citizen to-day. 

This is a thousand times better than if he were a 
miserable, unhappy, discontented priest, carrying a 
turbulent human heart filled with earthly desires under 
his priestly robe. God has no punishment in store for 
such a man, but He has penalties for those who live 
false lives. 

God will not be "angry" with the man who finds 
he has made a mistake in his calling, but He will not 
approve of the woman who goes about trying to con- 
vince the happy and faithful priest who rejoices in his 
life of devotion to spiritual things that he is on the 
wrong track. 

This is not a high calling for a Protestant woman. 

Were she to analyze her state of mind, she would 
find it was stubbornness and love of power, rather 
than constancy, which direct her thoughts so continu- 
ally toward this man of God. 



Something About Celibacy 139 



We all may be 

The Saviours of the world if we believe 

In the Divinity which dwells in us 

And worship it, and nail our grosser selves, 

Our tempers, greeds, and our unworthy aims 

Upon the cross. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW THOUGHT 
VIEW OF LIFE 



The Old and the New Thought 
View of Life 

Once upon a time I read the following gloomy bit 
of pessimism from the pen of a man bright enough to 
know better than to add to the mental malaria of the 
world. He said: 

"Life is a hopeless battle in which we are fore- 
doomed to defeat. And the prize for which we strive 
*to have and to hold' — what is it? A thing that is 
neither enjoyed while had nor missed when lost. So 
worthless it is, so unsatisfying, so inadequate to pur- 
pose, so false to hope, and at its best so brief, that for 
consolation and compensation we set up fantastic 
faiths of an aftertime in a better world from which no 
confirming whisper has ever reached us out of the 
void. Heaven is a prophecy uttered by the lips of 
despair, but hell is an inference from history." 

This is morbid and unwholesome talk which can 
only harm the speaker and the listener. 

It can depress and discourage the weak and strug- 
gling souls who are striving to make the best of 
circumstances, and it can nerve to suicide the hand of 
some half-crazed being who needed only a word of 
encouragement and cheer to brace up and win the 
race. 

This is the unpardonable sin — to talk discourag- 
ingly to human souls hungering for hope. 

When the man without brains does it, he can be 
pardoned for knowing no better. 

143 



144 New Thought Common Sense 

When the man with brains does it, he should be 
ashamed to look his fellow mortals in the eyes. 

It is a sin ten times deeper dyed than giving a stone 
to those who ask for bread. 

It is giving poison to those who plead for a cup of 
cold water. 

Fortunately the remarks above quoted contain not 
one atom of truth ! 

The writer may speak for himself, but he has no 
right to speak for others. 

It is all very well for a man who is marked with 
smallpox to say his face has not one unscarred inch 
on the surface of it. But he has no premises to stand 
upon when he says there is not a face in the world 
which is free from smallpox scars. 

Life is not "a hopeless battle in which we are 
doomed to defeat." 

Life is a glorious privilege, and we can make any- 
thing we choose of it if we begin early, and are in 
deep earnest, and realize our own divine powers. 

Nothing can hinder us or stay us. We can do and 
be whatsoever we will. 

The prize of life is not "a thing which is neither 
enjoyed while had nor missed when lost." 

It is enjoyed by millions of souls today — this great 
prize of life. . I for one declare that for every day of 
misery in my existence I have had a week of joy and 
happiness. For every hour of pain, I have had a day 
of pleasure. For every moment of worry, an hour of 
content. 

I cannot be the only soul so endowed with the 
appreciation of life. I know scores of happy people 
who enjoy the many delights of earth, and there are 
thousands whom I do not know. 



Old and New Thought View of Life 145 

Of course, "life is not missed when lost!" — because 
it is never lost. It is indestructible. 

Life ever was, and ever will be. It is a continuous 
performance. 

It is not "worthless" to the wholsome, normal 
mind. It is full of interest, and rich with opportunities 
for usefulness. 
/ When any man says his life is worthless, it is be- 
cause he has eyes and sees not, and ears and hears 
not. 

It is his own fault, not the fault of God, fate or 
accident. 

If every life seems at times "unsatisfactory" and 
"inadequate" it is only due to the cry of the immortal 
soul longing for larger opportunities and fewer limita- 
tions. 

Neither is life "false to hope." He who trusts the 
divine Source of Life shall find his hopes more than 
realized here upon earth. I but voice the knowledge 
of thousands of souls when I make this assertion. I 
know whereof I speak. 

All that our dearest hopes desire will come to us if 
^ve believe in ourselves as rightful heirs to Divine 
Opulence, and work and think always on those lines. 

If "no whisper has ever reached us out of the 
void" confirming our faith in immortality, then one- 
third of the seemingly intelligent and sane beings of 
our acquaintance must be fools or liars. For we have 
the assertion of fully this number that such whispers 
have come, besides the biblical statistics of numerous 
messages from the other realm. 

"As it was in the beginning, is now and ever more 
shall be, world without end. Amen." 

10 



146 New Thought Common Sense 



I often think but for our veiled eyes 

We should find heaven right round about us lies. 



THE CITIES BEYOND 



The Cities Beyond 

There comes to me, from one in whom I believe, 
a story of clear seeing — a vision of a wonderful city on 
another plane, outside of the earth realm. 

A city with beautiful streets, and fine architecture, 
and fair statuary, and alive with action, peopled with 
beings like, and yet unlike, the denizens of earth. 

The friend who saw these things asks nothing of 
me, not even belief; he is one who has studied the 
psychic questions of the day for many years from a 
purely critical and scientific standpoint; and he goes 
about his daily avocations like any other practical and 
sensible human being, and is not seeking for money 
or glory or a following of devotees. He says little, 
indeed, to any one of what he has been enabled 
to learn of matters called supernormal or spiritual. 
And only by an accident of similar tastes and interests 
and aspirations, the information of his latest and most 
interesting experience came to me. 

Hundreds of my good friends will smile at my 
credulity for believing this man's vision to be more 
than the result of a disordered brain, or excited imagi- 
nation. 

Hundreds of the friends of Cyrus Field pitied those 
few deluded people who believed in his vision of an 
ocean cable. 

Hundreds of the friends of Morse, and Franklin, 
and Marconi, and Edison have been "sorry" for the 
poor victims of "hallucinations," yet all these friends 

149 



150 New Thought Common Sense 

have lived to acknowledge their own mistakes of 
judgment. 

And so why may not all my doubting friends, if 
they live long enough, be forced to acknowledge here 
on earth their own lack of judgment in declaring the 
reports of the 'advance guards" along the spiritual 
picket line to be delusions ? 

It is a curious phase of the mortal mind which 
causes it to so vehemently oppose beliefs which are of 
the utmost importance to human happiness and human 
development. 

There is no geographical fact — no possible dis- 
covery of any other continent on earth — of such vast 
import to humanity as the proof of realms beyond, or 
outside of, this earth plane. 

Should the discovery of a wonderful and fertile 
continent at the North Pole be made, it could only 
interest us for a limited period of time ; one hundred 
years from now no one of us would remain to enjoy 
its products or be entertained by its sights. 

But the absolute knowledge and convincing proof 
that other continents existed beyond the earth, and 
the ability to see them with spiritual vision whenever 
we so desired, would render time impotent and take 
the sting, indeed, from death. 

Personally, I do not imagine my friend saw 
"heaven," for I do not believe in any one locality in 
the further lands which bears that name. But I believe 
"In my Father's house are many mansions," and in 
my Father's universe are many continents and cities. 
And I think my friend saw one of the many. I have 
no doubt it was a spiritual city, inhabited by spiritual 
beings, and that innumerable others exist in space — 
cities beautiful and unbeautiful, on higher and lower 



The Cities Beyond 151 

planes, according to the spiritual workmanship of the 
inhabitants. 

I believe you and I to-day, and every hour of the 
day, are helping to build one of those cities; and just 
as we build, so shall our structure be when we leave 
this particular chemical formation in which our spirits 
now dwell and pass on to new realms. And when 
we reach that new region we shall find for neighbors 
those who have thought similar thoughts, held similar 
ambitions and committed similar actions while on 
this sphere. The scientific world has decided that 
"Thought is Energy." This energy will select our 
place of habitation in the life beyond, and therefore 
it behooves both you and me to direct our energy to 
good and beautiful purposes, if we wish a desirable 
location in one of the many "cities not built by hands," 
but by ihouglits. 

There is something wonderfully stimulating to the 
human mind in the very vaguest dream of such a city. 

It gives new impetus to worthy action, new wings 
to hope, new^ comfort to sorrow, new solace to dis- 
appointment and failure. It makes everything good 
seem enduring, and everything that is not good trivial 
and of small import. It makes the hurried transit of 
time in this little life seem of less importance, and 
arouses the heart from sad reveries over broken 
earthly ties to a consciousness of renewed friendships 
and affections in worlds beyond. 

For those who have always longed for the beautiful 
and ideal, while compelled to live in sordid and com- 
monplace surroundings, it gives the exquisite hope of 
compensation for disappointment and reward for 
patience. 

All hail to the Cities Beyond ! 



152 New Thought Common Sense 

May our eyes receive the inner vision to behold 
them while we are yet in the temporal body upon 
this plane. 



And a new name shall Science henceforth wear, 
The Great Religion of the Universe. 



THE ONWARD MARCH 



The Onward March 

When the sentimentalists talk of the vulgarity of 
this mechanical age, and bemoan the increase of 
machine work, they do not realize that they are be- 
moaning the eventual evolution of man to something 
greater and more godlike than his present state. 

When the workingman sets his face against the 
introduction of a labor-saving machine he does not 
know it, but he is setting his face against the better- 
ment of the lives of his children or his grandchildren. 

When the stage coach, with its regular mails, was 
first introduced into the country the men who had 
carried mails on horseback across country declared 
the stage a monster which took bread from poor men's 
mouths. After the railroad came the stage coach 
devotee made the same protest; and the steamship 
was anathematized by the sailboat, and the trolley by 
the railroad; gas was considered the destruction of 
the lamp industry, and electric light was an invention 
of the devil to the gas company. 

Yet each new invention made new industries for 
labor and created new occupations and new interests 
for humanity. 

The sewing machine brought consternation to the 
seamstresses and tailors; and the mower was regarded 
as an enemy of the poor man who had supported him- 
self by wielding the scythe at haying and harvesting 
seasons. 

Yet what one of us to-day would like to see this 
country dependent upon a mounted man riding across 

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156 New Thought Common Sense 

fields with the mail bag, or upon the fish oil lamp for 
light, or the sailboat and stage coach for transportation, 
or the scythe for garnering the harvests, or upon the 
needle for all work in fashionable garments ? 

Every machine means emancipation for the mind 
of man. 

I have not been stirred by anything in the world 
of art more powerfully than I was stirred by the first 
sight of the steam sweeper. What freedom for woman 
lies in that invention once it becomes universal, as 
it will! 

Woman is slow to avail herself of the benefits of 
man's inventive genius. She is inclined to drag along 
in the old grooves, saying the old-fashioned methods 
are good enough for her; but she is in the path of 
progress, and she is too sensible to be ground under 
its wheels. The day will come when all sweeping, 
washing, ironing, dish cleansing and other menial labor 
will be accomplished by the mere direction of a 
machine, and the beautiful hours of beautiful days 
will not be spent in back-breaking and mind-monop- 
olizing rounds of ever- recurring labor. 

If any man ever went to the almshouse because of 
the advent of machinery, it was owing to his own lack 
of foresight and perseverance. 

Temporarily, indeed, the individual may suffer 
from loss of his accustomed occupation; but if he 
keeps his mind alert and his eye open and his heart 
courageous, he will find new paths leading from the 
new inventions which offer ten -fold the opportunities 
for success offered by the old. 

The railroad will serve as an example. 

Where a score of men in a locality were driven 
out of business by the abandonment of the stage 



The Onward March 157 

coach, hundreds of men found occupation as con- 
ductors, engineers, porters, brakemen and switchmen, 
not to mention the more profitable positions as officers 
of the road. 

From the building and marketing of sewing ma- 
chines and mowers and reapers, more families have 
derived support, than were driven from business by 
their introduction. 

The world will not, cannot, must not, stand still 
because a few slow and satisfied people have fallen 
into a groove and are dazed at the thought of essaying 
any other method of life. 

Progress is like a mighty engine, and those wh*^ 
are standing in its way must be struck down. 

Safety can only be found in getting out of the way. 

The man who attempted to start a large enterprise 
in the manufacture of sperm oil lamps after the arrival 
of gas as a means of illumination need not blame the 
gas company for his failure. 

It was due to his own lack of perception. 

The manufacture of gas fixtures would have brought 
him a fortune. 

Always look for the opportunity lying in the wake 
of progress; do not undertake anything which means 
defiance to new inventions. 

Do not imagine you can persuade the masses to 
stay behind with old fashions and old methods. 

However you may approve them, however they 
may excel the new ideas in many respects, you will 
be wise to save your breath, vitality and time for more 
profitable undertakings. 

Man is rapidly paving the way for a wonderful 
era of mental and spiritual development. 

The work of the world is becoming systematized, 



158 New Thought Common Sense 

and machinery is relieving overtaxed minds and bodies 
of the laboring world. 

Science and invention are working hand in hand, 
and before the end of this century discoveries will be 
made which to-day would rank with miracles. Man is 
only beginning to suspect that he has a soul, independ- 
ent of his body. In a very short period of time all 
intelligent beings will know the truth, understood only 
by the awakened few to-day. 

Keep your mind receptive, that you may inherit 
the kingdom which awaits you. 

Lift up your eyes! 



Not like a daring, bold, aggressive boy 

Is inspiration, eager to pursue; 
But rather like a maiden, fond, yet coy, 

Who gives herself to him who best doth woo. 



COMMON SENSE IDEAS 
IN MARRIAGE 



Common Sense Ideas in Marriage 

Happiness in married life is to be gained just as 
enduring happiness in any phase of existence on earth 
is to be found — by the use of the old-fashioned virtues 
of unselfishness, consideration for others, politeness 
and kindness, all based on love and capped by 
common sense. 

Like the old recipe for cooking the hare, which 
begins, "First catch your hare," a happy marriage 
for a wom.an begins with, "First select a man!' — not an 
ideal-made seraph, not an ossified brain, not a mere 
animal, but a man capable of loving and appreciating 
a woman's love. 

Of course he will be more or less selfish. That is 
the way parents rear their sons to be. It is your 
task to bear with this selfishness at first, until you 
can tactfully teach him how beautiful is thoughtfulness 
for others, and in a very sweet but very dignified way, 
show him that you expect the same treatment you 
give. 

In the meantime you must recollect that you are a 
faulty woman — and probably spoiled by your parents 
if you are an American woman — and you must not 
assume a superior air over your husband when you 
find out his faults, merely because they are unlike 
your own. 

Whenever he does or says anything ^vhich annoys 
or pains you, say to yourself: "I must avoid ever say- 
ing or doing that in my treatment of him." 

Then some day, when he tells vou of a fault you 
11 161 



162 New Thought Common Sense 

possess, put your arm about his shoulder and say: "Let 
us enter into a Mutual Improvement Society. I want 
to be everything you admire — you want to be every- 
thing I admire. 

"I will try and do my part and you must do yours. 
We are business associates for life, in God's Great 
Syndicate of Love — let us work together for a 
perfectly happy marriage." 

If your husband has whims, harmless whims, such 
as wanting his meals at certain hours promptly, or 
wanting you to be ready on time when you are going 
out, make every effort to gratify him. 

Be willing to sacrifice yourself to some extent to do 
this, but if you do as he wishes eight times without 
any word of approval from him and fail twice, and he 
is irritable in consequence, remind him gently of his 
lack of reasonableness and tell him that you need en- 
couragement for your good deeds as well as reproofs 
for your shortcomings. Then persist in your efforts 
to please him. 

Believe in your husband and expect him to be 
everything your heart desires. Say to yourself every 
day that he loves you; that he is good, loyal, kind, 
worthy and successful. Praise him; sympathize with 
his business life, his aims, pleasures and occupations. 

Be his friend and comrade as well as his sweet- 
heart and home-keeper. Remember that a woman 
makes the atmosphere of the home. 

I have seen a cheerful, optimistic woman, who saw 
a humorous side to every trouble in life, utterly trans- 
form a gloomy and fretful natured man into a jolly and 
good-humored being. 

If a man is certain he will find cheer, peace, 
mirthfulness, order, sympathy and love at home, he is 



Common Sense Ideas in Marriage 163 

certain to set his sail for that port with the same 
anticipation with which the mariner seeks his own 
harbor after a stormy voyage. 

Of course we must make allowances for the occa- 
sional lawless and drunken mariner who sends his 
ship on the rocks, and the worthless husband who 
does not appreciate life's best gifts. 

There are men who no woman on God's earth 
could keep loyal or honest, but they are exceptions. 

Be clean, neat and coquettish in your dress at home 
and in the privacy of your rooms with your husband. 

Never let him see you in soiled or careless gar- 
ments, and let him realize, tactfully, that you expect 
the same refinements from him. Nothing is common- 
place in the daily associations of life to two beings 
who love each other, if they do not allow themselves 
to fall into vulgarities. 

Mystery, romance and charm can hang forever 
about the wife, as well as about the mistress, if the 
wife so chooses. The husband can always, at every 
approach, be the Prince Charming to anchor the en- 
chanted Princess with his first kiss, if he is skilled 
enough in love's arts and refined enough to wish to 
keep the interesting role. 

And in all love's ways man is much given to fol- 
lowing woman's lead. 

If you possess no independent income of your 
own, have an understanding during your honeymoon 
in regard to money matters. 

Ask for an allowance to be set apart for your use, 
in order that no humiliating and indelicate discussions 
need ever occur between you on this subject. Then 
study to be economical and thrifty and wise in your 
use of your allowance. 



164 New Thought Common Sense 

Love, sense and patience. Those are the three 
important elements necessary to happiness in marriage. 

Much has been said and written of the woman 
who keeps her little worries and troubles of the kitchen 
and nursery to entertain her husband with when he 
returns home after business hours. 

She has been chided and urged to remember how 
much her husband needs her cheerful face to greet 
him at home and her bright, hopeful conversation to 
drive away the load of cares which beset his weary 
mind. 

All this is very true. There are always women 
who forget that man's business life is not one per- 
petual fete, and that his hom^e is frequently the only 
place to which he can turn for real rest and peace of 
mind. 

But observation impresses upon my mind the con- 
viction that very few business men leave their office 
and shop worries and anxieties behind them when 
they enter the domestic door and eventide. 

They carry them into the home and expect the 
wife to be entertained with them. If she endeavors 
to change the subject they feel that she is not interested 
in their affairs, and that she is heartless and indifferent. 

If they do not talk their worries at home, they 
act them, which is quite as bad, if not worse. 

I have seen a happy, optimistic, loving woman's 
face, beaming with pleasure at the sound of her hus- 
band's latchkey in the door, changed to sadness and 
depression in half an hour by the gloom and nervous- 
ness of a really kind-hearted man, who had not the 
forethought or self-control to throw^ his business 
troubles off before entering his home. 

Even if a man is so tired and worn by a swarm of 



Common Sense Ideas in Marriage 165 

petty and harrowing troubles, or by giant burdens, that 
he cannot at once lift himself into a state of cheerful- 
ness or serenity he might at least make some effort to 
avoid spoiling a loving woman's whole evening by his 
preoccupation and depression. 

It is, of course, a duty and a pleasure for a sympa- 
thetic wife to soothe and cheer and distract a man's 
mind from care; but it is equally a thoughtful man's 
duty to save a wife all the unnecessary worry possible. 

Nothing v/eakens a character sooner than the habit 
of taking all its troubles to another life to bear vicari- 
ously and ignoring its own duty for self-reliance, 
cheerfulness and courage. 

The coming home of the beloved man is the event 
of the day for the loving woman, no matter how full 
her life may be of agreeable duties or social pleasures. 
If four or five days out of the six week-days he comes 
home with the **blues" just so many days are spoiled 
for her. 

If she is continually called upon to stimulate and 
sympathize and cheer, the drain upon her vital and 
spiritual forces becomes exhausting, and the character 
of the man grows surely, if unconsciously, weaker by 
the process. 

A wife creates the atmosphere of the home— but 
the husband must do his part as well if sunshine is to 
prevail there. Its rays will be dimmed if he persists 
in transforming himself into a large black cloud, or a 
bank of fog. It is a relief, now and then, for a wife to 
tell her husband all the vexations of the day and to 
have his sympathetic counsel; and just so, on occa- 
sions, it is a comfort for a man to take his troubles 
home to a loving mate and talk them over. But it is 
a great mistake when either one settles into the habit 



166 New Thought Common Sense 

of loading the other s shoulders with a burden of 
worries, described or unexpressed. 

And I fear in these days this grave error is made 
more frequently by the husband than by the wife. 

Many a time the head of the household imagines 
he is doing all his duty by working incessantly and 
keeping his family in comfort or luxury. 

If he exhausts all of his hope and cheerfulness in 
his labor and has nothing to take home to his family 
but his depression and nervousness, he is doing his 
wife and children a greater injury than he would if he 
worked less and provided them with fewer material 
benefits. 

A home needs something besides receipted bills to 
render it a happy haven for a family. 



Lean on thyself, yet prop thyself with Prayer; 
For there are spirits, Messengers of Light, 
Who come at call and fortify thy strength. 



THE SHADING OF THE 
PICTURE 



The Shading of the Picture 

Elbert Hubbard quotes and reiterates the saying 
of John Wesley that he never had a mood of despond- 
ency which lasted more than a half hour in all his life. 

While I am an advocate of optimism as the founda- 
tion of happiness, success, health and usefulness, yet 
I believe there is great spiritual growth found at times 
in a season of despondency and self- analysis. 

It is in such hours that we take mental stock, that 
we view ourselves under the searchlight, and that we 
discover how closely we resemble the "other people," 
those ''others" who have been the subject of our criti- 
cisms and our aversions, perhaps. It is when we feel 
"blue" that we understand many racial weaknesses 
and faults, and we come closer to all erring and suffer- 
ing humanity. As the skies are more beautiful some- 
times seen through a rainbow, so humanity is more 
beautiful seen through our tears. 

It would have been better for the world had John 
Wesley indulged in a few moods of such enlightening 
despondency. One such season might have taught 
him the inconsistency of his belief in hellfire and brim- 
stone as godly means of punishment. He would have 
realized how wholly self-made is each hell. 

The man who remains alway and forever satisfied 
and cheerful, is dangerously near becoming an egotist. 

He is so certain that he is all right that he is sure 
everybody else is all wrong. 

It requires a touch of shadow to make a perfect 
picture. 

169 



170 New Thought Common Sense 

He who has never known hunger has never known 
real enjoyment in a repast. 

The deepest harmonies in music must unite the 
minor with the major chords. 

The earth must suffer by storm and frost before it 
can produce its fullest harvest. 

I do not believe it is possible for a human being to 
attain the very best of which he is capable without 
seasons of gloom, despondency and almost despair. 

It is in such seasons that we reach up, beyond our 
lesser selves, and find God. 

And it is in such seasons that we realize our 
kinship to all who have struggled and toiled and 
overcome. 

The man born rich, who never knows the strain 
and pain of poverty, cannot sympathize with millions 
of his fellow men who lie awake at night, anxious 
hearted and sleepless eyed, because of unsupplied 
material needs. 

The man who has never known despondency 
cannot get into the inmost heart of his despondent 
brother and help him to rise above his fears and 
worries, showing him the way by which he himself 
has climbed. 

Therefore I say to you, be not discouraged with 
your mental state, even if, unlike the two illustrious 
men named above, you sometimes fall into the deep 
valleys of shadow, and walk in gloom for a season, 
and see no path leading higher. 

You are but gathering strength for a fuller under- 
standing of life, a fuller and richer comprehension of 
your kind, and you will surely, surely, if you w^atch 
and wait, and try, find the path that leads out again, 
up the mountain side. And when you see the sun of 



The Shading of the Picture 171 

hope once more it will shine with greater lustre, and 
your eyes will have wider vision because of your 
sojourn in the valley. 

God's lessons for us mortals are not all written in 
illuminated texts — many of the letters are shaded and 
dark. 

Believe always that each lesson is from God, and 
walk on into the sunlight. It shines over the hill 
farther on. 

There is no sin in an occasional descent into the 
valley of despair — the sin is in remaining there, and 
shutting the eyes to the heights. 



All men are unawakened gods. 



WOMAN AND THE 
CIGARETTE 



Woman and the Cigarette 

The growing tendency of woman to smoke must 
be regarded as a misfortune to the race by all who 
think deeper than the surface of things. 

It is useless to say that the vice is no more injurious 
to woman than to man. The subject does not end 
there. Until nature provides some other way for the 
race to obtain birth than its present method, the habits 
and thoughts of woman are of greater importance to 
the world than those of men. 

Every child comes into the world strongly im- 
pressed by the prenatal condition surrounding the 
mother. 

Science has proven that the poorly nourished and 
ill-fed mother produces an anemic and weakly child, 
and that drinking mothers produce diseased or 
abnormal children. In countries where great poverty 
exists, and where women are the burden bearers, the 
race is almost always undersized. 

The accumulation of proofs that the thoughts of the 
mother affect the child before birth is overwhelming. 

Physically and psychically the mother's part in 
making her child what it proves to be is so great that 
it borders close upon omnipotence. Napoleon's 
mother read histories of war and was fired with the 
conquests of great warriors before his birth. A 
woman of my acquaintance has an abnormal appetite 
for fruit because before her birth her mother was liv- 
ing on a ranch where fruit was not to be obtained. 

The suppressed desires, tendencies and appetites 

175 



176 New Thought Common Sense 

are more frequently given to the children than those 
which are indulged and gratified. Therefore it is 
most important that a woman who ever hopes to 
become a mother should not create a habit, appetite 
or taste which, by its indulgence, will harm her child 
physically, or, by its suppression, will harm it men- 
tally. 

The woman who fills her system with nicotine 
while carrying a child under her heart could not 
expect to give that child a good constitution. 

The woman who craved cigarettes continually, 
and resisted, would give the child that craving. 

Hundreds of young girls think a surreptitious cig- 
arette is "great fun." 

If it ends at that, as it does in the majority of cases, 
no harm is done. It does not pay in this world to be 
too strait-laced, or, as a bright woman expressed it, "to 
be always tightly buttoned up." But it does pay to so 
control our habits, appetites and customs that ive are 
masters, and that our minds and bodies are kept clean, 
wholesome and well poised; and to so live that our 
children will receive only the best influence for their 
earthly portion of the incarnation to which we call 
them. 

Upon the condition of the mind of the mother 
depends greatly the kind of spiritual ego she calls 
^rom space for re-birth. To that ego are added the 
physical inheritance from the parents and ancestors 
and the prenatal influences of the mother. 

Every new-born child is, therefore, a wonderfully 
composite creature, but the mother who understands 
the law of prenatal influence, and adds to it a knowl- 
edge of what can be done by the right training of the 
human plant, as Luther Burbank expresses it in his 



Women and the Cigarette 177 

wonderful book, can make her child into what she 
wishes it to be. 

It is a remarkable fact that the present growth of 
the cigarette habit among women is largely due to 
men. I know at least a score of men who have 
taught their wives to smoke. They declare it is 
"sociable" and makes the woman more "companion- 
able." 

Yet several of these men have been deeply con- 
cerned when the habit grew upon their wives. 

A gifted and beautiful young wife of my acquaint- 
ance smokes so incessantly that she is obliged to take 
a "rest cure" in some sanitarium once or twice a year. 

Then, after clearing her system of nicotine, she 
begins to fill it again. And never once does she admit 
to herself that the cigarette habit is the cause of her 
nervous breakdown. She always thinks it is due to 
her "artistic temperament" and over brain work. 

It is to be regretted that women who occupy 
prominent positions in the world of society or of art 
do not feel the "noblesse oblige" which prevents a 
woman from placing her personal sanction on a habit 
which is an injury to the sex at large and to coming 
generations. 



12 



178 New Thought Common Sense 



Who giveth love to all, 

Pays kindness for unkindness, smiles for frowns, 
And lends new courage to each fainting heart, 
And strengthens hope and scatters joy abroad. 
He, too, is a Redeemer, Son of God. 



SINNING AGAINST THE 
"HOLY GHOST" 



Sinning Against the **Holy Ghost" 

Never since the beginning of history was there 
such a spiritual awakening in the minds of men as has 
taken place in the last few years. It is not a sudden 
emotional phase, but a growing flame of desire for 
greater knowledge and for freedom of thought. It 
affects all classes, and is to some degree felt and 
understood by the most ignorant as well as by the 
most frivolous. 

While it is certain to bring humanity to a higher 
standard eventually, it is causing many abnormal 
phases to display themselves in the meantime. Most 
abnormal of all is the phase which strikes at the root 
of domestic life and destroys conjugal happiness in the 
name of religion. 

There is a growing class of women who believe 
they have been ''awakened" spiritually, and who are 
convinced by their "Teachers" first, and through their 
own "Higher Convictions" afterward, that love should 
exist only on the spiritual plane, and that men and 
women should live and love as disembodied spirits 
are supposed to live and love. 

From reliable sources the astonishing and almost 
incredible information has come that an order of 
''religious'' enthusiasts exists which recommends the 
mutilation of the body as a means of spiritualizing the 
mind. This is not among savage or ignorant people 
but among the educated and refined women of the 
/and, mind you. 

Could there be a more insulting act shown the 

181 



182 New Thought Common Sense 

Creator? Could there be a more utter abandonment 
of the divine power, and willy and self control, which 
are the God qualities given us to use in the develop- 
ment of character? 

These same religious devotees will tell you that 
the Hindoo who holds his arm in one position until it 
becomes paralyzed, to show his love of God, or that 
the Lhassa priest who disembowels himself alive for 
the same purpose is a pagan and a savage. Yet com- 
mon sense tells us that all abnormal and unnatural 
methods of life followed in tlie name of religion are 
of the same school, and that school belongs in the 
realm of unbalanced minds. God does not want and 
does not approve of any method of life which 
upsets His divinely planned order of human exist- 
ence. 

It is just as great a crime to starve, torture and 
mutilate your own body as that of another. Every 
organ, impulse, appetite, affection and passion was 
given you to conserve for the highest purpose. Just as 
vour hands need the ten fingers, and your feet the 
ten toes, and your face two eyes, and ears, and a nose, 
and mouth, to be a perfect human body, so you need 
all your emotions and appetites and desires to be a 
perfect being. Just as you need to use the organs of 
your body for noble purposes, and your hands for 
worthy service, and your feet for willing journeys at 
the bidding of good, so you need to turn all your 
impulses to the development of a perfect character. 

The craze for fasting has become a disease in 
America among many orders of religious fanatics. 
Without doubt an occasional fast of a day is excellent 
for the overtaxed digestion, as a day of rest is excellent 
for the overworked man or beast. Occasionally 



Sinning Against the "Holy Ghost" 183 

seasons of living upon milk and raw foods are good 
for the body and mind. But long agonizing fasts, and 
the idea that we must exist like the air plants on our 
respirations and aspirations, and never eat anything 
which we like, in order to become "spiritual" — that is 
a phase of emotional insanity. 

The wife who loves her husband and who knows 
that he is her loyal lover and friend, yet who is carried 
away by her religious mania to the extent of believing 
that she must live only in the realm of the spirit with 
him — she, too, has become insane and needs a special- 
ist to look after her condition. She is sinning against 
God, who made men and women to be not only 
spiritual and mental, but physical mates. 

We have no right to attempt to overturn God's 
kingdom on earth and to starve and mutilate and 
crucify ourselves, to establish any order of life which 
is unnatural and premature. 

Live t?ie hest and highest order of this life before 
you attempt another. Be the best wife, the best 
mother, the best friend, the best woman possible 
before you try to become the best saint or angel. 

To be the best wife to the good self-controlled 
husband who respects your womanhood, you need to 
be human as God intended you to be when he made 
human beings. He made the trees, the plants, the 
animals and the human family all with various 
impulses, and had He not respected these impulses 
enough to make them universal they would not 
exist. 

To starve or destroy, by unnatural methods, any 
part of the nature is as wicked as to abuse and misuse 
it. You have no right to brand as base or ignoble 
what God created. 



184 New Thought Common Sense 

To be the best Mother, Friend and Woman possi- 
ble, sympathy and charity and understanding of the 
everyday life of your kind must be cultivated. You 
must be human and wholesome and natural and 
loving. You must not attempt to stand upon a pedes- 
tal and pose for the admiration of those belo\\^ you. 
Instead of trying to call people up to a chilly height, 
you must go along with them, and if you stumble and 
fall now and then, show them how quickly a human 
being can rise and brush off the dust and go on higher. 
This will do the world tenfold more good than all 
your fastings and soarings and all the crucifyings of 
your normal nature. 

When God is ready to take you out of the body 
it will then be time for you to practise wholly spiritual 
methods of life. 

While He indicates His desire that you remain in 
the body, live like a good, sensible human being and 
make every one about you happy and comfortable. 
Of course humanity needs high ideals to lead it away 
from self-indulgence. 

But it is a poor way to try and cure a man of gour- 
mandizing by starving him to death. The wiser way 
is to make him understand the delight of self-control, 
and the purpose for which the appetite was bestowed 
by the Creator. To remove his digestive organs and 
sustain his life by hypodermic injections of food 
might relieve him of hunger's pangs, but it would not 
develop his character like helping him to conserve his 
appetite for the sustaining of life and the normal pleas- 
ures of the table. Every time we control an abnormal 
or unwise appetite of any kind we grow in mental and 
spiritual power and in the development of character. 
But that does not mean that we are to deny the body 



Sinning Against the "Holy Ghost" 185 

food upon all occasions or starve the nature at every 
turn. 

To ruin your home life by trying to prove yourself 
a spirit is a sin against God, yourself and humanity. 



Faith cannot rescue and no blood redeem 
The soul that will not reason and resolve. 



NEW THOUGHTS AND 
BEAUTY 



New Thoughts and Beauty 

Mr. Marcel Prevost once said that beauty no 
longer rules the world. Women of brains now take 
the scepter, he claimed. 

It is possible that Mr. Prevost was merely a little 
belated in his discovery. 

Some of the greatest women the world has ever 
known — women who have helped to make history 
and to change the atlas of the earth — were women of 
greater brains than beauty. 

Cleopatra was not beautiful, according to the artist's 
ideal. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that 
she lacked size, symmetry and youth, when she 
wielded her most powerful sway over men and 
nations. 

Nobody knows how Helen of Troy looked, but 
the statement has been made by learned men that she 
was past forty when she turned the world into a 
theater where a continuous performance of battle took 
place on her account. 

Aspasia was more famed for her talents than for 
her physical attractions, though she was a beautiful 
woman. She was said to have written part of 
Pericles's famous funeral oration and was accused 
of bringing on a war with Samos. Her house was 
the center of literary and philosophical circles in 
Athens. 

Catharine of Russia is remembered for her marvel- 
ous achievements — as a statesman, warrior and friend 
to art and literature and for her many lovers. So 

189 



190 New Thought Common Sense 

masculine a nature as hers could not have dwelt in a 
femininely beautiful body. 

The great beauties who have ruled their worlds to 
any important extent have always coupled brains and 
tact with their physical charms. 

Ninon de L'Enclos was exceptionally gifted men- 
tally, and so was Madame Recamier. Neither woman 
could have exerted so vast and permanent an influence 
by beauty alone. 

Very many of their subjects who imagined they 
worshiped at beauty's shrine were undoubtedly held 
in bondage by other qualities. 

Without question, the world respects and admires 
intellect in women more to-day than in former eras. 

There was a time — the time of Aspasia and her 
contemporaries — when a woman was obliged to rank 
herself among the declasse, if she wished for a general 
education. 

To think outside of domestic and sentimental sub- 
jects was supposed to unsex her. A woman was 
forced to defy conventionalities and forego domesticity, 
if she insisted upon being intellectual. 

The progress of the world has changed all that. 

Woman is allowed to do as she pleases in the 
mental realm, and her achievements are applauded 
and respected. The intelligent girl puts the ignorant 
beauty to confusion. 

But the really wise, as well as brainy woman, 
knows the value of beauty, and cultivates it. 

Beauty is, after all, a matter of individual opinion. 

There is no standard by which it can be decided 
to please everybody. 

The most exquisite brunette of personal attractions 
will be found lacking in charm by somebody who 



New Thoughts and Beauty 191 

adores blondes and vice versa. The tall Diana will 
be criticised by the lover of the "pocket Venus." Let 
either woman, however, add mental charm and 
tact (of all things, tact, which is the result of kindness 
and breeding), and she may have the world at her feet. 

I do not believe a half dozen authentic cases can 
be found in history where droll and ignorant beauties 
maintained a long reign in the world of fashion. 
Beauty attracts, but it must be supplemented by 
other qualities to hold more than one infatuated man 
— and even that rarely occurs. 

Every day we may observe beautiful women neg- 
lected for plainer ones, who know how to amuse and 
entertain men. 

If we carefully study the lives of the beautiful and 
brainless women of every era, we will find they were 
never permanent rulers. They were compelled to 
seek new audiences constantly, and their lovers left 
them for other charmers. This is not true of the men- 
tally endowed beauty. In the career of Mile, de 
L'Enclos, which lasted until her eightieth year, it is 
said only one of her many admirers ever wearied of 
her, so completely was she skilled in the art of fasci- 
nation, which means simply the ability to entertain. 

I hope Mr. Prevost's idea that men have ceased to 
demand beauty in women will never be exemplified 
by fact. 

I do not believe it will. Never were women so 
wisely prepared to combat time and his train of petty 
persecutors, care, and worry, and disease, as now. 

Science and specialists are teaching them how to 
preserve complexion and form into old age. 

The New Thought Science is teaching them how 
to illuminate features bv expression — the expression 



192 New Thought Common Sense 

of the Divine Self — which is to mere beauty of face 
what the electric spark is to the porcelain globe. 

The old ideas of gloomy, pessimistic piety, which 
used to elongate the faces of many devout believers in 
hell fire and eternal damnation have given way to a 
religion of cheerful optimism and love, which radiates 
the countenance and defies age. 

The outdoor life which women indulge in so 
universally now is another aid to beaut^^ and good 
health ! And it seems safe to predict that the coming 
generation of women will combine brains and phys- 
ical beauty as never before in the history of the race. 



Back of thy parents and grandparents lies 
The great Eternal Will. That, too, is thine 
Inheritance — strong, beautiful, divine. 



FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS 
WOMEN 



13 



Famous and Infamous Women 

If you have access to a good library (as you surely 
have in these days of many libraries), devote a half 
hour a day, at least, to reading history. 

Select histories which will tell you about the 
famous rulers, kings, queens, emperors, statesmen, 
senators of old. 

Read about the Medicis, Catharine of Russia, 
Cleopatra, Napoleon, the doges of Venice, the queens 
of England, the kings of France and the famous and 
infamous women who ruled their courts — and, after 
you have read, think about the poor little fleeting time 
of glory mixed with misery which these people 
enjoyed. 

They were all eaten up with fear, jealousy, rival- 
ries and hatred. Fathers and sons, mothers and sons, 
became enemies when personal ambition stood 
between them; enemies to the death. Charles V. of 
Spain was a party to the murder of his own son; Cleo- 
patra led an army against her son; Nero plotted to kill 
his own mother, and a hundred instances could be 
cited where men and women famous in the annals of 
history as great rulers connived at the murder or 
imprisonment of their own next of kin in order to 
retain or obtain a little fleeting temporal power. 

The number of women who sold self-respect, 
honor, virtue and all claim to the world's respect for 
the sake of shining in the courts of kings is legion. 

One is led to question why so many such famous 

195 



196 New Thought Common Sense 

men and women of history are at the same time 
infamous. 

Reason will explain. 

Concentration of tliouglit, unswerving purpose and 
intensity of feeling are what bring results in this life. 
Whether this combination is directed to good or bad 
objects, the result is obtained; the object is gained. 

We remember those people because they were 
vital influences in the world; they felt, tliouglit and 
lived intensely. They lived selfish and evil lives, oft- 
times because they knew no better; their aims were 
unworthy of their mental endowments; but they 
suffered the punishments of their own errors and sins 
by the continual state of fear in which they dwelt ; fear 
that their schemes would be detected ; that their plots 
would be revealed ; that their own confederates would 
turn against them, as they frequently did, and fear of 
assassination and poison from their enemies. 

We cannot envy them their ill-gained power and 
glory. 

But we can learn from them the lesson of the law 
of intense feeling and concentrated thought. 

In this more enlightened age we know murder 
does not pay; that anything which is gained at the cost 
of another life is not worth while. We have grown 
to where our statesmen do not murder one another 
or their own children to gain power and position. 

But if our philanthropic men, our great reformers 
and our makers of thought to-day would put the same 
amount of vital force into their undertakings which 
actuated those wicked old celebrities, there is nothing 
which might not be accomplished for the good of 
humanity. 

A good and bright woman, who has lived a long life 



Famous and Infamous Women 197 

of loneliness and has maintained her self-respect and 
the respect of her fellow beings, asked recently why 
the women of history were, as a rule, so disreputable 
in conduct, and why time continued to emblazon their 
names with immortality. She did not understand the 
law of thought; she did not realize that tJiougM is 
energy, and that negative virtue and quiet and placid 
mental conditions achieve little for an individual, or 
for the race at large. 

Goodness and virtue and all the qualities which go 
toward the constructive forces of nature ought to be 
vital and intense. Only so can they combat the 
destructive forces in the world. 

Many a good woman has placidly loved her hus- 
band and been forgotten by him and the world; but 
the world remembers Heloise and Cleopatra because 
they loved intensely. 

However misdirected the love may have been, it 
was yet a vital flame that burned its path along the 
centuries and commanded the memory of the world. 

It has been the trend of modern education to eradi- 
cate all intense feeling from the heart of the race. 

The education which does this for humanity 
destroys all possible hope of great achievements for 
the future. 

Many of the great people of history were possessed 
of the same force which is contained in destructive 
lightning. It behooves us not to do away with light- 
ning, but to direct its power into radiant energy, into 
beneficent electricity. 

Then we may all become ''Saviors of the World" 
and hasten the millennium of universal peace. 

That era can never be brought about by interna- 
tional congresses of amiable, good-intentioned people, 
who meet and mildly talk over their theories. 



198 New Thought Common Sense 

Were one human being to sweep across the world 
to-day fired with the same tremendous impulse for 
peace which actuated Napoleon for war, Cleopatra for 
power, Heloise for love, universal disarmament would 
result. 

Joan of Arc is a shining example of what such a 
concentrated purpose for good can accomplish. 

It is no wonder her name grows more radiant with 
the passing of centuries. 



A gloomy Christian is a paradox. 



/^■' 



ENEMIES TO HAPPINESS 



Enemies to Happiness 

Remorse and Regret are both enemies to Success 
and Happiness. Regret wastes our time, taking us 
back over the fields of lost pleasures, departed youth 
and missed opportunities. She leads us to cemeteries, 
and bids us sit by old tombs and weep for those who 
cannot return to us here. 

Such an hour may prove a means of spiritual 
growth, if it is an exceptional experience. But when 
Regret is our daily companion, and when she rises 
with us in the morning, walks beside us all day and 
retires with us and directs our dreams at night, she is 
our worst enemy. 

She is wasting the strength which should be given 
to spiritual and mental growth ; the growth which will 
enable us to become philosophers and to earn 
immortality. 

He who spends his time in regretting lost youth is 
not growing into beautiful maturity or an attractive 
old age. 

He who continually mourns for the departed loved 
ones is not keeping pace with them in spirit growth, 
and he is widening the distance between possible 
reunions. 

The disembodied spirit is going forward in the 
planes beyond; unless we go forward here, how can 
we hope for a reunion ? 

However inevitable and lasting may be the loneli- 
ness and sorrow we feel for those passed on, we must 
not make Regret our daily companion. We must 

201 



202 New Thought Common Sense 

work and grow, and Regret does not permit us to do 
either. 

Remorse is even a greater enemy to our best 
development. She keeps us standing by the decaying 
corpses of our old errors, faults and sins. 

She keeps us thinking of what we have done or 
left undone, instead of what we can do. 

Remorse is a carrion crow in disguise, pretending 
to be interested in our spiritual regeneration. 

There is no regeneration in the contemplation of 
past errors. Put them under your feet ; think of them 
only as stepping stones for the future heights you are 
to climb. 

The past is past; the present and the future only 
concern you. Put Regret and Remorse out of your 
door and refuse to associate with them. 

Hope and Resolve are your companions for the 
future. 



Attune thyself to harmonies divine. 

All, all are written in the key of love; 

Keep to the score and thou hast naught to fear. 

Achievements yet undreamed of shall be thine. 



THE NEW YEAR 



The New Year 

The New Year suggests new ideals, new ambitions, 
new aspirations, new efforts to refined souls. Even 
the dull or worldly minded are induced to plan some 
new move, to better their lives at this season of the 
year. 

Many men and women who have been living in 
folly and sin make an effort to begin over again with 
the New Year and to abandon their evil ways. 

It is not an easy thing to do, for — 

When a man tries to pull himself up out of sin 
The Devil stands ready to push him back in. 

But let no single relapse discourage the soul that 
really longs for a higher plane of life. Just in propor- 
tion to the strength of your desire for anything on 
earth is your strength to obtain it. 

Whatever you wish to be, if you are a sane and nor- 
mal-mmded being, that you can he. "We will be 
what we will to be." It is not sane or normal to wish 
to be a Shakespeare, a Mozart, a Michelangelo, or any 
other great genius if you possess no marked talent. 
/ These colossal souls came into the world endowed 
(with qualities which they earned in past lives. 

But no matter how devoid of talent or genius you 
may be, remember you have an immortal mind and a 
will bestowed upon you by Divine Power, and with 
that mind and will you can achieve whatever you 
desire, if you are persistent and patient. 

205 



206 New Thought Common Sense 

Start the New Year with that behef. Make some 
effort toward what you desire to accomplish to-day. 
Do not postpone it until to-morrow. To-morrow you 
must make the second step. Each day you must in 
some way proceed a little nearer to your aim. 

If a combination of circumstances prevents you 
from making progress one day, double your efforts the 
next. If you have resolved to overcome some habit, 
and in a moment of weakness you fail in your resolve, 
do not think that signifies that you have no will power, 
and that you must go on in the old way. It was Con- 
fucius who said: "Not in never falling do we show 
our strength, but in the ability to rise and go on to the 
goal." 

We all stumble and fall in pursuit of our ideals, but 
that does not prove that our ideals are worthless, or 
that we will not attain to them in time. 

Try and take a half hour or an hour alone with 
yourself each day this year. Sit down very quietly 
and think of the worthy and unselfish things you would 
like to do, and believe you are to be shown the way 
to do them. Ask for light and guidance, and it will be 
given. Breathe deep breaths, filling every lung cell. 
Physical, mental and spiritual power will result. 

Start the New Year with a resolve to he kind. 

Those are small words, but they have vast meaning. 

Perhaps you may imagine you are always kind 
now, but if you watch yourself for an entire day you 
will find how difficult it is to be really kind — to treat 
each human being and animal as you would wish to 
be treated. 

We all talk loudly of the need of the churches to 
establish a religion of brotherhood in the world, but 
what are we doing toward it ourselves? 



The New Year 207 

Watch your tongue, that you speak only kind 
words, and watch your mind, that it harbors only kind 
thoughts. That is resolve enough to make for one 
year. If you do that, you will take a long step toward 
"saving" your own soul and evangelizing the world, 
for all that evangelization means is kindness — love of 
God and our fellow men. Begin your efforts toward 
kindness with those nearest you — at home, in business, 
in society. Extend them to public places and in shops, 
stores, train and street; think and act kindness, amia- 
bility, good nature, cheerfulness, peace. 

You will be astonished at your influence as the 
months go by, and you will know that you are helping 
to bring about the conditions you desire in the world. 



Though mine be narrow, and yours be broad, 
On my ladder alone can I climb to God. 



ENTHUSIASM 



Enth 



usiasm 



Whatever you are doing, cultivate enthusiasm for 
your task. Enthusiasm is the first ingredient of suc- 
cess, and the second in great achievement. The first 
must be talent for your work. 

Success, from a worldly point of view, may come 
without talent if you have enough enthusiasm and 
perseverance. 

I asked an art critic why he did not consider a 
certain painting under observation a real work of art. 

He answered: It lacks enthusiasm. I think the 
artist who painted it was not enthusiastic and not 
positive enough. The result shows in a painting 
which just misses being good." 

Perhaps the artist might say that he could feel no 
enthusiasm when obliged to make art boil his pot. 

One hears much such talk in the world. 

But some of the greatest works of men in all fields 
of art have been created under conditions of distress- 
ing need. 

The flame which is lighted to boil a tea kettle can 
be as beautiful and as intense as one which is lighted 
merely to observe. 

If the kettle hinders the flame from rising higher, 
it often sends it out in a wider circuit. 

And when the pot is boiling and removed, the 
flame has gained enough power to warm a whole 
house. 

Whatever you are doing in the way of work, 
therefore, remember to keep the flame bright and 

211 



212 New Thought Common Sense 

fervent, for therein lies your best hope of making the 
world appreciate your efforts. 

Exactly what you are thinking and feeling about 
your task will affect all those who see it. 

If you are mechanical and phlegmatic, working 
like a machine, and wishing your task over, do not 
expect to stir the world with what you achieve, how- 
ever perfect may be your technique. 

If you are devoid of enthusiasm, know that those 
who look upon the finished result will be likewise. 

I knew a man who wrote sentences which were 
like perfect mosaics, so beautifully rounded and exqui- 
site were they. 

His great desire was to become a novelist. When 
his novel appeared it was a beautiful piece of litera- 
ture, yet it failed to interest the public. Speaking of 
it, the man said he had driven himself to finish the 
book after losing all interest in the characters. Often 
he kept away from his work for weeks, forgetting his 
characters, and being obliged to read the work over 
to pick up the lost thread, and then fairly hating the 
book. 

It was small wonder it failed. 

This man was an essayist. He had loved to write 
brief and brilliant articles which could be finished at 
a sitting. 

When he attempted to write a novel he went 
outside of his true sphere, and the interest and enthu- 
siasm which characterize his other work were lack- 
ing. 

Inspiration and enthusiasm, however, are fre- 
quently waiting close by for the call of the artist or 
artisan in any work. It is an erroneous idea to imagine 
they must come first and impel to action. Whatever 



Enthusiasm 213 

your work, do not wait for inspiration to coax you or 
force you to application. 

A great painter told me he went every day to his 
studio during working months and invited inspiration, 
however coy and elusive, to come to his aid. 

Many of his most beautiful creations had been 
accomplished after a seemingly hopeless beginning. 

To make some effort at achievement each day and 
to keep working — that is the way to attain proficiency 
and reach final results. And to focus the mind on the 
task and feel that it is the most important effort in the 
world while it lasts is to give it a vital quality which 
will affect all who contemplate it afterward. 

Cultivate interest and enthusiasm. 



No mortal yet has measured his full force; 
It is a river, rising in God's thought. 
And emptying in the soul of man. 



BRACE UP 



Brace Up 

If you are discouraged and blue and life looks 
hard and the future hopeless to-day, do not grow 
cowardly and think of self-destruction as the door of 
escape. 

You did not make yourself. You cannot unmake 
yourself. 

By no process of reasoning can you explain this 
wonderful marvel of the life principle within you. 
Science has found all the ingredients which compose 
an egg chemically, and an egg which resembles the 
hen's product can be manufactured. 

But it will not produce life. A certain low order 
of fish life has been produced in the chemical labora- 
tory. But the germs spawned by the fish had first to 
he employed. 

Nothing can produce life but that unnamable mys- 
terious Power back of the universe. Created beings 
carry on the life principle through succeeding genera- 
tions and centuries, but its production and creation 
remain God's secret. He who imagines he can 
destroy that principle is as great a fool as he who says 
he can explain it. And he is a criminal besides. 

All that death does is to shift the scene of action to 
another form and plane. 

If you are miserable and unhappy you do not 
become happy by going to another town or state. 
You carry your wretchedness with you. 

It is precisely the same when you rush out of the 
body by your own act. If you are called out of the 

217 



218 New Thought Common Sense 

body by the same Power that brought you into the 
world, then it is safe to suppose that conditions are 
ready for you to start anew in another place. 

Wait for that call. 

The actor who rushes upon the stage before his 
cue is given spoils the play and ruins his own chances 
for glory. 

Keep behind the earthly scenes until you hear the 
call. Meanwhile think well of your lines and be 
ready to do your best when called. 

However discouraged you may be thousands of 
successful and happy people in the world to-day have 
been just as discouraged and unhappy as you are at 
some time in their L'ves. 

In Greater New York there lives to-day a woman 
who less than a year ago harbored dark, despairing 
thoughts of suicide. 

She had made a mistake; she had lost her self- 
respect, and every imaginable trouble seemed to 
threaten her. Hunger and misery for those dear to 
her and dependent upon her, with despair and 
remorse, all combined to turn her thoughts toward the 
coward's goal — suicide. 

But seeming accident deterred her, and now in 
less than a year all has changed. She has risen to new 
spiritual and moral heights, she has obtained work and 
is leading a good, useful. Christian life. 

She is making those dear to her happy and com- 
fortable. 

How much better than to have sunk them in the 
depths of a lifelong sorrow by a rash attempt at self- 
destruction — an attempt which destroys only the outer 
shell, but leaves the real being to suffer on until it 
works out and expiates its crime. 



Brace Up 219 

■^ No matter what your troubles are to-day, a year 
may scatter them and leave you with new hope and 
new interest in life. 

If you are an invalid a year may restore your 
strength. 

This is a wonderful age, and people are beginning 
to realize that health is greatly within one's own 
control. 

Simple food, well masticated, as little meat as possi- 
ble, much water, continual deep breathing, to feed 
the body with pure oxygen, and continued assertions 
of health and strength, from the source of all energy, 
will restore three-fourths of the invalids on earth, with 
no aid of medical skill. A two or three months', or 
even weeks', diet of raw vegetables, or milk and eggs, 
would restore half of the remainder, if coupled with 
the right mental attitude and exercise. 

The day is nearing when sickness w^ill mean dis- 
grace or lack of brain. 

If you have no money and no employment, make 
up your mind that both are coming to you. If starva- 
tion seems imminent go to the nearest house in the 
country and tell your condition. Not one door in one 
hundred will shut you out before bestowing a saving 
meal. If you are in a city the blessed Salvation Army 
will help you and will tell you of places to find shelter 
until you can look about and gain courage for a fresh 
start. 

Unlike most of our orthodox churches, their rooms / 
are open night and day, and in all parts of the city in I 
every city in the Union they are to be found. They \ 
are doing just the work Christ did when upon earth. 
No matter if your creed is not theirs to the letter, they 
will help you to rise and keep out of the morgue and 
the potter's field. 



220 New Thought Common Sense 

After you have rested for a day, brace up morally 
and mentally, and declare that you are going to make 
a new start, and that the way will open, must open 
and has already opened to you for a new life. 

This assertion will strengthen you amazingly. 
Believe in yourself, in your right to a useful, happy 
and successful life. Remember how many men have 
been in poverty and despair and have risen out of 
them to power and usefulness afterward. 

Trust in the invincible force of your own divine 
soul to become one of these and believe the Angels of 
Light who hear the cry of despairing ones on earth 
will strengthen you. 

The way will and must open for you if you turn 
your eyes away from death and despair, upward and 
inward. 



The world needs you or you would not be. 
Your place is waiting for you — find it! 



UNIVERSAL NEED 



Universal Need 

How universally kind and thoughtful people are to 
the blind, or the crippled. No one is ever so busy or 
so worried or so out of temper that he cannot stop to 
show a little courtesy and consideration to a blind man 
who is groping his way along the street or through a 
room. 

The most selfish of us seem to have that impulse of 
sympathy and helpfulness toward the blind which 
causes people deprived of sight from birth, to think 
the world is such a kind place. 

Well, now if we only pause and consider the truth 
about humanity we will realize that everybody is 
blind. Whoever is going wrong is blind, for surely no 
one ever deliberately wanted to go wrong. The most 
disagreeable people on the face of the earth and the 
most wicked and the most selfish are all blind. Think 
of them as you think of the poor fellow with his cane 
and his hands groping in front of him as he walks. 

Show the same sympathy, the same desire to help 
them to go right, and what a different feeling you will 
find growing in your heart, and what a different world 
you will be instrumental in building. 

To be sorry for anybody is a step toward spiritual 
education and a link in universal brotherhood. In- 
stead of being angry and disgusted at the stupidity, the 
selfishness and the sins of human beings we ought just 
to be sorry for them. That is the first move toward 
helpfulness. 

Most of us are angry and disgusted at other people 

223 



224 New Thought Common Sense 

and very sorry for ourselves. That is a waste of sym- 
pathy. Never be sorry for yourself. 

Regard your sympathy as a glass through which you 
may behold the heart of humanity. Do not turn it 
upon yourself. While you are looking at your own 
troubles some one may go by who needs your atten- 
tion, and you will lose an opportunity to be kind and 
lead a blind man across the street or to restore a crutch 
to a cripple who has fallen. 

You would even risk losing a train or being late to 
an important engagement to do an act of mercy such 
as that. You would be ashamed to leave the cripple 
where he could not reach his crutch or the blind man 
lost in a labyrinth. 

We are all of us needing the crutch or a kind word 
or look or thought, and all of us are needing a hand to 
lead us into the right path. Yet how we push and 
crowd and jostle one another. How we sneer and 
criticise and condemn, so long as we do not see the 
blind eyes or the missing limb! 

What a pity that it is only the physically disabled 
who appeal to us! 

There was a man born without legs who begged 
upon the streets, and everybody poured pennies into 
his cup so that he was enabled to buy himself three 
houses and to get drunk and to divorce one wife and 
marry another like a gentleman of high society. Yet 
people continued to pour money into his cup. 

Across the street was an able-bodied man whose 
business was crushed by the power of a corporation, 
and he had a mother and a sick sister to support, and 
he could not afford the luxury of even one wife. 

He lay awake nights trying to plan how he could 
win success in life, and he grew pale and hollow-eyed, 



Universal Need 225 

and no one offered him a word of pity or poured pen- 
nies or kind words into his ear cup. And by and by 
he broke down with the nervous strain and died. 

Perhaps a little sympathy at the right time would 
have given him courage to battle on to success. 

Just think about these things a little as you hurry 
along your way, and do not save all your sympathy 
for the blind and lame. 



Only he who finds such happiness on 
earth can expect to find it in heaven. For 
happiness is a mental state and can be 
fashioned by our thoughts. 



EVERY-DAY OPPORTUNITIES 



Every-Day Opportunities 

A MAN past middle age descended from an incom- 
ing train in a narrow passage leading to a large depot. 
He had occupied a rear car, and over one hundred 
people were in front of him when he reached the 
passage. Only two persons could walk abreast, and 
the high railing on one side and the train on the other 
made it necessary to keep to the narrow exit. 

The man had important engagements awaiting him. 
He was well bred, a gentleman, and considered the 
little courtesies of life. 

Yet without violating one of these he reached the 
depot and the trolley car first of all those hundred 
people. 

He watched his chances, and availed himself of 
them. 

A woman in the line at his left dropped her parcel 
and stooped to recover it. He slipped in front of her 
without delaying anyone in either line of march. 

A man on the right paused to shift his baggage from 
the right hand to the left, and this made another open- 
ing. Still another held up the whole procession to 
question a train ofBcial leaning from a car window, but 
instead of stopping with the throng our traveler pushed 
ahead and found a clear space, which soon enabled 
him to reach the trolley car two or three moments in 
advance of the first man who had descended from the 
train. He had moved rapidly, quietly, decently and 
without once inconveniencing a fellow traveler. 

No doubt scores of passengers from the rear cars 

229 



230 New Thought Common Sense 

explained their tardy arrival at home, and at places of 
business, as due to the procession in front of them. 

This same man had begun life in the rear car. He 
had been a poor child on a Western prairie, without 
influence, and with meager opportunities for edu- 
cation. 

Yet, by this inborn trait, this determination to watch 
his opportunities and push ahead, he obtained an edu- 
cation and a desirable position in life before middle 
age — obtained it through his own efforts. 

Many of his old comrades are living in the same 
meager environment of early youth, believing they 
were hindered by fate from attaining success. 

They regard the good fortune of their old acquaint- 
ance as a stroke of luck. 

'*He was born to be lucky," they will tell you. 
"Things naturally went his way." 

But they went his way merely because he watched 
his chance and slipped ahead when the opening came. 

These chances come to every one of us along the 
highway of life. If we are not on the lookout the line . 
closes up before we see the open space. 

Every day I live I perceive more and more clearly 
how the real success of life comes from within and 
not from without. 

An intense, unswerving, fixed purpose, dominates 
all conditions. The mind which concentrates itself 
upon the one idea, / must do this thing , does it event- 
ually, no matter what obstacles intervene. 

The mind which says, "The procession is so long 
ahead of me it is useless for me to try to hurry; I must 
just jog along"— that is the mind which never gets be- 
yond the jogging pace. The procession is always 
ahead. 



Every-Day Opportunities 231 

A score of times it separates, opens, clears, but the 
man who says "It is no use" is not watching and does 
not see his opportunities. 

And he dies at the rear of the column, believing *'he 
has had no chance. " 

We all have it. Few see it! Fewer still seize it. 



Don't forget to praise five times where 
you criticise once. 



THE MASTERS 



The Masters 

Who and what was Buddha — is a question often 
asked by orthodox Christians. 

Owing to the highly intellectual stratum which has 
always been the underlying force in India, the story 
of Buddha's life is much more authentic than the early 
lif^ of our own Great Master, Jesus Christ, although 
he lived six hundred years earlier. Gautama Buddha 
was the son of a high caste Rajah, and therefore a 
prince. He was the only child of his parents, and his 
mother died shortly after giving him birth. 

The ancient literature of his land contains the story 
of his mother having been told by an angel that she 
was to give birth to a godchild, and in the main the 
tale is almost identical with that of the immaculate 
conception of Christ. In fact, these supernatural sto- 
ries have attended the birth of all the great masters and 
spiritual leaders. However, the young lad was reared 
by his father as a prince, and it was not until wealth, 
power and all earthly happiness had been laid at his 
feet that he began to develop his insatiable longing for 
God's truth. 

He gave up home, family, power and wealth and 
went into the desert places to pray and meditate. 
India had degenerated from the pure religion taught 
by those most wonderful of all books, the Vedas, and 
idol worship and sacrifices and mortification of the 
body were the prevailing customs when Gautama 
began his studies. 

235 



236 New Thought Common Sense 

All the methods of fasting and mortification he 
tested, and all he discarded as useless. He summed 
up the religion necessary to salvation in the follow- 
ing words: 

"To cease trom all wrong-doing; 
To get virtue; 

To cleanse one's own heart — 
This is the religion of the Buddhas." 

He also formulated the "Eight-Fold Path to Right- 
eousness": 

/. Right views. 5. Right mode of livelihood. 

2. Right aims. 6. Ri4jht exertion. 

3. Right words. 7. Right mindfulness. 

4. Right hehavior. 8. Right medUaiion and 

tranquillity . 

Among many other beautiful words left us by Gau- 
tama Buddha are the following: 

'':As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, pro- 
tects her son, her only son, so let man cultivate good 
will witliout measure toward the whole world, above, 
below, around, unstinted, unmixed with any feeling of 
differing or opposing interests. Let a man remain 
steadfastly in this state of mind all the while he is 
awake, whether he he standing, walking, sitting or 
lying down. This state of heart is the best in the 
world.'' 

To support father and mother, 
To cherish wife and child, 
To follow a peaceful calling — 
These are the greatest blessing. 



The Masters 237 

To bestow alms and live righteously, 
To give help to kindred, 
Deeds which cannot be blamed — 
These are the greatest blessing. 

To abhor, and cease from sin, 
Abstinence from strong drink, 
Not to be weary in well-doing — 
These are the greatest blessing. 

To be long-suffering and meek, 
To associate with the tranquil, 
Religious talk at due season — 
These are the greatest blessing. 

Beneath the stroke o' life's changes. 
The mind that shaketh not, 
Without grief or passion, and secure — 
These are the greatest blessing. 

On every side are invincible 
They who do acts like these ; 
On every side they walk in safety — 
And theirs is the greatest blessing. 

For never in this world does hatred cease hy hatred; 
Hatred ceases hy love; this is always its nature. 

One may conquer a thousand thousand men in battle, 
But he who conquers himself alone is the greatest victor. 

Let a man make himself what he preaches to others ; 
The well-subdued may subdue others; one's self, 
indeed, is hard to tame. 



238 New Thought Common Sense 

Let us live happily, then, not hating those who hate us! 
Let us live free from hatred among men who hate! 

He who holds back rising anger as (one might) a roll- 
ing chariot. 
Him, indeed, I call a driver : others only hold the reins. 

Let a man overcome anger hy kindness, evil dy good; 
Let him conquer the stingy by a gift, the liar hy truth. 

The fair-minded reader will readily concede that 
this teaching is identical with the teachings of Christ. 
Regarding the future state of man Buddha believed 
that each being eventually, after many incarnations, 
dissolved into "bliss absolute" and became a part of 
the creative source. 

Buddha lived righteously and unselfishly, bore 
much persecution and misunderstanding patiently and 
died a holy man, leaving an indelible impress upon 
the world for all time. 

His beautiful life and beautiful teachings are worthy 
of all respect. Christ is to me a brother, a friend, a 
master, a guide. There is not a day when my thoughts 
and affections do not go out to Him, reverently. That 
does not prevent me from giving love and reverence 
to His older brothers, sons of God, who came to 
enlighten the world before Christ's advent. Each 
taught according to his time and the needs of his audi- 
ence. Yet, studied carefully, the essential truths taught 
by each were the same. Krishna taught that love was 
the law of the universe. Buddha taught love and self- 
conquest. Christ taught Love and Kindness. 

And all were messengers from God. 



The Masters 239 

The religion taught by each has been prostituted by 
millions of their followers and turned into theological 
jargon, and thousands of Buddhists to-day are heathen 
idolaters such as Buddha tried to save; just as thous- 
ands of Christians are money worshipers and idol- 
aters of fashion, and power, such as Christ tried to 
save. 

But that does not alter the glorious message each 
Master brought to earth. 

For Truth is forever the same, and love is unchange- 
able. 



Who loves mankind more than he loves 

himself, 
And cannot find room in his heart for hate. 
May be another Christ. 




BUILDING KINDNESS CELLS 



16 



\ii 



Building Kindness Cells 

In the laboratory of Dr. Elmer Gates, of Chevy 
Chase, Washington, D. C, I was shown through a 
microscope, an atom of gray matter, taken from the 
brain of a rabbit that never saw colors. The animal 
was chloroformed after living a few weeks in a dark 
room. 

I was shown another atom of brain, of a rabbit of 
the same age, which had been made to see lights of 
various colors every day of its brief life. The differ- 
ence in the appearance of these two portions of brain 
matter was remarkable. The portion of the brain cell, 
subjected to the lights was finely veined like a leaf of 
a delicate plant. Every time the animal looked at the 
ligMy and thought of the light, as we might say, a 
physical change took place in the brain structure. 
That physical change created what is called color cells. 
Just exactly so every thought of sympathy and pity 
creates a kindness cell in the brain of human beings. 

Every person on earth is making some sort of a 
cell in his brain every waking moment of the day or 
night. 

Thoughts are things. Thought is energy — thought 
is a creative power. That is why it is important to 
direct the minds of human beings to good, kind, help- 
ful thoughts. 

Have you ever heard a doting parent say, "My 
children love animals so dearly; we always keep a 
kitten or a puppy for them to play with." Then have 
you observed those children while at play? Have 

243 



r 

/ 



244 New Thought Common Sense 

you seen the helpless kitten crushed under a fat little 
arm, and heard its useless wails, as the "loving child" 
mauled and hauled it about with no word of protest 
from the mother? 

If you called the attention of the mother to the fact 
that the kitten or puppy was being misused, ten to one 
she became your enemy for life, and spoke of you ever 
afterward as an impertinent and ill-bred person who 
undertook to tell others how to bring up their children. 

One of the important features of humane work is 
the direction of the thoughts of the parents to the 
rights of animals. 

Parentage is the oldest profession in the world for 
men and women ; but there are the smallest number 
of prize winners in that profession of any in the 
world. 

Many a woman believes herself a good mother 
because she is ready to fight for her child through fire 
and water and to walk over the dead bodies of other 
mothers, and other children, in the efl^ort to make way 
for her own; and because she loves her child in this 
selfish manner, she is blind to any sufl^ering it gives 
other human beings or animals. 

Real good motherhood must include the universal 
moilierliood. It must make a woman love her child 
so unselfishly that she is willing it should suffer while 
learning its lessons of kindness and thoughtfulness and 
protection, rather than to enjoy itself while taking 
away the toys, the privileges, or the rights of other 
creatures — human or animal. 

Almost every even half-civilized woman to-day, 
shrinks from the sight of a cruel driver beating a horse, 
or from seeing the kicks and blows, often given 
wretched street dogs and cats. 



Building Kindness Cells 245 

They are ready to report such cases of cruelty to 
the Society. But hundreds of good women are per- 
mitting their children to grow up with cruel instincts: 
worse yet, they are teaching their children cruelty in 
the cradle. 

Before you question this statement, listen and think. 

Do you not over and over see a mother whip a 
hobby horse to amuse her child ? Do you not see her 
punish an inanimate object over which the baby has 
fallen, in order to distract the mind of the baby from 
its hurt? 

I have seen rag dolls spanked, and Teddy bears 
beaten, by mothers, to make a baby laugh. 

What can you expect of that child when it grows 
up, save that it will revenge itself upon anybody who 
annoys it, by physical chastisement. The boy who 
has been educated to beat his hobby horse will beat 
his real horse when he drives one. 

The time to begin to teach a child kindness and 
sympathy is in the cradle. Say to your children as 
soon as they are able to play with toys, ''Be good to 
your toys; they need love and kind usage. Let your 
dollie rest sometimes, and handle her tenderly. Your 
Teddy hear and your hoh'by horse are needing your 
love.'' If your baby stumbles and falls over a chair 
or rug, instill politeness and consideration into his 
plastic mind, by teaching him to apologize. He will 
be quite as much amused and distracted if you say, 
"Excuse me, Mr. Rug, or Madam Chair, for my awk- 
wardness; I hope I have not seriously hurt you," as 
he will be if you say, "Naughty old rug, or chair, to 
hurt baby," and then proceed to rain blows on the 
poor inoffensive object. Teach your children to 
address their toy animals in a kind and well-modulated 



246 New Thought Common Sense 

voice instead of a loud screech. You will benefit both 
the people of to-day, and the animal of tomorrow by 
this course. 

Tell them the truth ; that animals are very sensitive 
to noise ; that a horse is a timid and loving creature, 
and that a loud, harsh voice frightens it and hinders 
it from doing its duty or obeying its owner. A low 
voice and a gentle hand will make any horse, if taken 
in time, faithful, willing and safe. A horse will do 
twice the work and live twice the time in good health, 
if it is treated with respect, gratitude and love by its 
owner. Teach this to your children while they are 
playing with their toys. They will never forget it. 

The warden of the Connecticut State prison is a 
wonderfully good and wise man. He is a student of 
human nature. He said to visitors one day, if a cliild 
is properly educated to the age of ten, no matter what 
its inheritance, it never becomes a criminal. He did 
not mean that children sent to fine schools, and given 
tutors and great advantages, never became criminals. 
He meant that children, guided in their thoughts and 
ideas by wise teachers and parents, should have right 
ideals, right feelings, and right desires. Children 
should he taught consideration of the rights of other 
creatures. That sentence includes all the needed pre- 
ventives of crime. 



Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought 
To chord with God's great plan. 



WHAT IS OPTIMISM? 



What Is Optimism? 



In this era, when rAetaphysical "New Thought" 
is talked more continually than it is lived consistently, 
we hear much of "Optimism." 

Yet, who can define the exact meaning of that 
word? 

The man who was told to "look on the bright side 
of things" replied that he "looked on the side that 
was up." 

To forever declare the side that is up, bright, though 
undeniably black, is not optimism — it is nonsense. 
^ To turn things over and fifid a bright side, to polish 
them and malce a bright side, that is practical 
optimism. 

Without doubt, the mental attitude helps, or hin- 
ders, the actual effort. The man who enthusiastically 
thinks success while working for it, achieves more 
than double the results attained by one who couples 
the same effort with an indifferent or unbelieving 
mind. 

Genius is not a mere capacity for hard work. 
Hard work done without enthusiasm never stirred the 
pulse of the world nor fired a human heart. Genius 
is the child of enthusiasm, but it remains a child and 
dies mute and inglorious, unless clothed with action, 
and crowned with persistence. 

Enthusiasm, Genius, Optimism — they are great 
words; they are powerful factors in the development 
of the individual and of the race — mighty movers in 
the world of progress; but they possess no lasting 

249 



250 New Thought Common Sense 

value, no real ^vorth, unless harnessed to concentrated 
effort. 

Intense, optimistic thought is a mental dynamite, 
and blasts an opening through impassable rocks. 

But of what use is that opening unless we push 
through and proceed along the way? 

And, first of all, must come the consciousness and 
the acknowledgment of the rock — the realization of 
the necessity for mental dynamite. That is true 
optimism, and that is the true optimist who says: "This 
rock is formidable ; it will require all my force to open 
a way through it, but I can and I will." And he does 
open a way. 

The world to-day is full of the self-styled optimists 
— people 'who smile in the face of difficulty and say, 
blandly: "There is no rock, no obstacle. The way 
will open, if I wait. I need not disturb myself." But 
the way does not open for such optimists, because the 
purpose of creation is that every atom shall work out 
its o^vn individual destiny by individual effort. Until 
it does ^vork it out, it must be cast under the wheels 
of Life and ground into the clay over which shall pass 
the feet of Progress. 

The optimistic housewife looks on her tarnished 
silver and says: "It is bright underneath; I am going to 
prove it." And she sets herself the task of scouring 
off the discolorations. 

She who simply asserts that the silver is bright 
and shining, and continues to use it in its dull and 
mottled state, waiting for some miracle to transform it, 
is making herself ridiculous and spoiling the silver by 
neglect. 

Verdigris will work. Optimism should. 

Many a man believes he is an optimist, when he 
is only a drone in Nature's Hive. 



What Is Optimism? 251 

But the drone is finally driven from the hive — and 
dies, however cheerful may be his views. Bees 
demand work, not opinions. 

I remember a woman -who prided herself upon 
her optimism. She was forever projecting it, like a 
glaring searchlight, into the eyes of the unprotected. 
Often, when I saw her approaching, I wished for 
blinders. 

She dashed in through my door one day, when a 
howling northeaster was laying three days' siege on 
the countryside. She wore an oilskin suit and carried 
no umbrella. 

''What a glorious day," she said rhapsodically, 
while she held the door open leisurely, letting in a 
blast of wind and a deluge of rain. Then she sat 
down on a cushioned divan, and little rivers of rain 
ran down her skirt upon my floor. 

"It is a perfectly beautiful day to go about," she 
continued. "I just love it." 

I was glad she loved it, but I would have preferred 
a caller who disliked it sufficiently to carry an 
umbrella and leave it outside my door. 

This "optimist" made work for others by her 
peculiar phase of optimism. That is frequently the 
result of undiscriminating optimism. 

"I al^vays see the silver lining under clouds like 
these," she said, "and I know what lovely sunshine 
follows this weather." 

I knew it, too, but, meanwhile, I saw the puddles 
of rain forming pools on the floor and running under 
the edge of my rug. 

My optimistic caller tramped triumphantly away, 
to teach other benighted people how to be happy 
though wet, and the maid and I set about cleaning up 
the flood. 



252 New Thought Common Sense 

"After her, the deluge," I said. 

I knew a young man who wore his optimism Hke 
a boutonniere, always in evidence. Its relation to 
his mental powers was as a violet to his attire. 

One day he came in, smiling, and said : "Congrat- 
ulate me! I've lost my position." 

"You did not like it, then?" I asked. 

"Oh, yes; but I am sure it is all for the best. I 
shall find something better soon." 

"You have an opening in view ?" 

"Not at all. I am not even looking for a position. 
It will come to me." 

I believe the inevitable is always right. I told the 
young man so. But when young birds are pushed 
from the nest by an inevitable law they are expected 
to use their wings. 

If they sit on the grass under the tree where they 
fall and wait for something to come, that something 
usually takes the form of an animal with a well- 
developed appetite for tender little birds. 

The young man waited two years before the 
expected position "came. Nor was it sent to him. He 
was obliged to look for it. Two years lost, through a 
mistaken understanding of the word "optimism." And 
during those two years he had been obliged to borrow 
from his less hopeful friends, who were not as 
advanced as he in metaphysics, but who believed in 
seeking for what they wanted to find. 

Long ago I took for my motto : 

This is Love's supreme decree, 
Only good can come to me. 

It should be a rule for each immortal soul sent into 
life to perfect itself. 



What Is Optimism? 253 

But to prove our philosophy we must "make good" 
ourselves. We must believe, pray, aspire, work and 
climb. We must look in, up, about and beyond. We 
must learn to analyze, discriminate and choose. We 
must weed out the garden of our souls, and each 
become a Burbank in his own domain, casting away 
pernicious and poor material and perfecting the good 
and valuable, making it better and more valuable by 
our use of it. 

I believe all our troubles, burdens and obstacles 
are sent us for the best good of our souls, if we turn 
them to that end by mental and physical effort. That 
is my understanding of optimism. 

I do not believe all these things will ''turn out for 
the best" if we go carelessly and cheerfully along the 
way with no focused thought, no well-directed energy. 
Cheerfulness, and faith, and self-reliance are great 
factors in life, but alone they do not make the optimism 
which builds character, alters human destiny or turns 
seeming evil to good unless the ingredient of well- 
directed, persistent work enters into the composition. 

Better an occasional mood that is not optimistic — 
a night of tears and anxiety, followed by resolution 
grown from despair, and effort that calls into play all 
the latent energies — than this eternal drifting down 
an idle sea of cheerful optimism in a ship of hope to 
the shores of Nowhere. 

I have seen a woman of talent and ability drifting 
for years on this sea. She knows she is gifted; she 
believes in herself; but she postpones from day to day, 
from month to month, from year to year, all positive 
effort, so confident is she that ''everything will come 
out all right for her by and by." 

Well for her were an overwhelming tidal wave of 



254 New Thought Common Sense 

doubt of herself, a distrust of the future, to sweep her 
out of her settled optimistic complacency, and arouse 
her to the necessity for personal effort. 

Self-reliance is a comrade of optimism. Self-con- 
ceit is its foe, and leads it to destruction and failure. 

Precisely the same laws apply to the country, to 
the race, which apply to the individual. It is not the 
satisfied, profoundly optimistic citizen who says: "My 
country is all right; she can do no wrong; her faults 
are the faults of youth ; let her alone and she will out- 
grow them." It is not that kind of citizen who is the 
true patriot. 

The man who loves his country most is he who 
strives hardest to keep her garments from trailing in 
the mud, which left its ineradicable stains on the 
robes of older nations; he is the man who sees and 
warns her of impending dangers, even at the risk of 
being called a pessimist and a sensationalist. 

To look on the bright side of the oil, beef, coal, 
railroad and political trusts is possible, if one takes the 
larger view; the view which belongs to the eyes of 
prophecy and sees beyond these calamities to their 
abolishment — the view which beholds the flagrant 
evil working out its own destruction, and giving place 
to a newer order and a cleaner system. 

That is real optimism, and the only optimism possi- 
ble and consistent with present conditions and self- 
respecting patriotism. 

The conservative tool of capital, or the slave of old 
traditions, who assures us that "everything is all right, 
and that the country is in better condition than ever 
in its history," is not the patriot — not the optimist who 
helps uphold her honor. 

The true patriot is he who makes the pathway 



What Is Optimism? 255 

safe for new generations to tread, even at the cost of 
temporary disorder and confusion to the present 
generation. 



Let thoughts of parents and ancestors 
go. Think of yourself, young man, as just 
created from space. Call to that great 
reservoir for your inlieritance of health, 
usefulness and power. 



"WHAT IS THE LOVING 
THING TO DO?" 



17 



"What Is the Loving Thing to Do?" 

That is the motto of "Fellowship," a wonderful 
organization founded by Benjamin Fay Mills, with no 
creed save "Trust and Service." 

What is your idea of trust, and service ? 

How would you answer the question contained 
in the motto ? 

My own idea of trust is as illimitable as the word 
indicates. Whatever happens, to helieve it is a part 
of the divine plan. However unpleasant, however 
painful, however disagreeable may be that happening 
or circumstance, to determine upon finding its good 
meaning, and to turn it to the soul's account and make 
it a means of character building. 

Trust does not, in my interpretation of the word, 
include placid acceptance of conditions or events. 
It means using these things as stepping stones to 
deliverance. 

When our environment is not to our liking, when 
we are annoyed and hurt by events, the first thing to 
do is to discover if we ourselves have not been the 
cause of these troubles. If we realize on careful 
analysis that we are the cause, then trust the divine 
forces to show us the way out. 

If we find we are blameless, and the troubles come 
through what we call Fate, then again timst in divine 
power, within ourselves and beyond ourselves, to 
deliver us. 

Meanwhile, to go upon our way doing the duty 

259 



260 New Thought Common Sense 

which lies nearest, with absolute trust in the heart 
that we are treading the path to power. 

Trust must include cheerfulness, and it must pre- 
clude complaint, spoken or thought. It creates grati- 
tude to the giver — for whatever comes. 

Service, in the creed of "The Fellowship," to my 
interpretation, means continual thought for others — 
the hourly application of the Golden Rule and the 
New Commandment; not the Sunday remembrance 
of them. 

Service, through humanity, to God — beginning in 
the morning, in the home, the boarding-house or the 
hotel, on the ship or on the train, on the street, in 
public conveyances or in the shop, market place or 
factory, and extending into the social circles, and 
always back into the home. 

True service to humanity need not consist in giving 
endowments to churches or colleges, or in building 
libraries and hospitals. These things are good in their 
place, and they are good uses for money; but the serv- 
ice most important to the world in bettering humanity 
is the daily service of one human being toward another. 

Sometimes this service takes only the form of a 
word spoken at the right time ; a letter written at the 
right moment; a call made or an invitation given, 
which proves remembrance and regard. 

Sometimes it means the use of time, and again the 
use of money, and again the denial to give money, and 
the enlightenment to give counsel. And always it 
means an understanding of "what is the loving thing 
to do?" 

Simple as these manifestations of service sound, 
they are most difficult to perform all the days of all 
the years. Set forth and undertake to live a life of 



"What Is the Loving Thing to Do?" 261 

Trust and Service just one week, and to always do the 
loving thing, and you will appreciate the universal 
nature of this creed of Fellowship. 

Try it and see what you think of it. 

But in the trying be honest with yourself. Watch 
your words, your thoughts and your actions. Do 
nothing for the praise of men. Do only what your 
own best self knows to be right and best. 

Never mind the times you fall back, and make 
mistakes, and fail. Each recognition of your own 
errors means new strength to go forward. 

When you make the motto of Fellowship your 
mental mentor, and listen to the question, "What is 
the loving thing to do?" spoken by your heart at every 
turn, you \vill be surprised to find how difficult is the 
answer. 

Sometimes the loving thing to do necessitates 
inflicting pain on those you love. It means warning 
them when they are on the downward path ; and it 
means refusing to proceed with them if they will not 
listen to counsel. We cannot continue to "be com- 
panionable" when that necessitates dissipation and 
other forms of vice. 

It means to give material aid, and to deny yourself 
for others ; and again it means to withhold material aid 
and compel the indolent unfortunate to earn his own 
bread. 

It means controlling the quick temper and develop- 
ing the spirit of tolerance and sympathy. But it means, 
too, controlling the sympathies and not allowing them 
to lead you to the performance of another's duties. 

There is no more unloving tiling than to do 
another's loorlc and let that one go free of his own 
responsibility. 



262 New Thought Common Sense 

A large contract, indeed, is this, to set forth with 
the resolve to do the loving thing always and every- 
where. 

Try it! 

Begin in your home. Apply the motto to your 
household, to your treatment of your family, wife, 
husband, children, parents, servants. 

Write out the question and hang it over your 
mantel or sideboard, where all may see and answer 
it to their own satisfaction : 

''What is the loving thing to do?'* 



Man may be 

And do the thing he wishes, if he keeps 

That one thought dominant thro' night and day, 

And knows his strength is limitless, because 

Its fountain head is God. 



A NEW THOUGHT ROSARY 



A New Thought Rosary 

One of the oldest and sweetest customs among the 
religious denominations is the telling of the beads of 
the rosary. The Buddhists, the Mohammedans and 
the Roman Catholics have preserved this custom, 
whose origin cannot be traced, so remote is it. 

There is something poetic and beautiful about it. 
Without question the habit has been helpful in bring- 
ing the minds of religious devotees under control, and 
developing the power of concentration. 

New Thought, which takes its central ideas of the 
unity of life and the divinity within from the oldest 
religions known to history, can be made still more 
potent by the introduction of the rosary idea. 

No beads are necessary; written phrases will serve 
the purpose; and let each earnest soul, seeking to find 
the light and to develop the latent powers within, pro- 
vide its own rosary. 

Are you discouraged and given to melancholy and 
nervous moods? Do you feel that everything goes 
against you, and that the future holds nothing but 
sorrow for you? 

Then let this be your rosary. Write down the 
phrases and put them where you can see them as you 
sit alone for your moments of concentration. "String 
your beads" of these sentences : 

/ am peace absolute. 

I am serenity. 

I am happiness absolute. 

Life holds nothing hut good for me. 

I am realizing all my heart's desires. 

265 



266 New Thought Common Sense 

After you have learned the words by heart, you 
will not need the written rosary; it will become a part 
of your thoughts. 

You will say your rosary over as you walk on 
the street or sit in public conveyances, or drive in 
your carriage, or lie in your bed; and you will find 
such strength and power coming to you as you never 
dreamed of possessing. 

If you are worried about your health, or about your 
financial condition, add new beads to the rosary and 
say: 

/ am lieaWi, energy ^ vitality. 

I am prosperity and plenty. 

Opulence is miney and the wisdom to use it wisely. 

Everything I do succeeds y and I am filled with 
vitality and strength. 

Familiarize yourself with these words, and make 
the rosary a part of your daily mental and spiritual 
exercises. 

A worried and despondent business man who 
believed he was born to misfortune acceded to the 
wish of a friend and carried the rosary she wrote for 
him in the lining of his hat, reading it over whenever 
he felt the despondent mood approaching. 

After a time his nerves were less tensely strung; he 
was calmer and more philosophical. That was all. 

Then came a complete business failure, and he 
said to his friend: "You see the rosary did not work. 
I am born for failure." 

But right after the failure came the best fortune of 
his whole life, and it came through the failure, just as 
the erection of a fine marble building waits upon the 
destruction of a cheap, wooden structure oftentimes. 

Health, happiness, success and power have come 



A Nev/ Thought Rosary 267 

to many lives through the repetition of one of these 
New Thought rosaries. String one for yourself, of 
such mental qualities as you crave, and such posses- 
sions as you need for your happiness and usefulness. 
You will be surprised at the result if you are faithful. 

The explanation is perfectly logical and natural. 
You simply bring the vibrations of your mind to chord 
with those of universal good. You cease to make a 
discord in the mental and spiritual realm. 

The cells of your brain undergo a physical trans- 
formation by your change of thoughts; and "As a man 
thinketh, so is he" proves to be literal fact, as well as a 
divine assertion. 

If you feel the romance of your domestic life fading, 
if love seems to be dying in your home, make your- 
self a rosary to help bring the happiness which is the 
earthly vestibule to heaven. 

Proclaim love^ compatihility y sympathy, romance 
and constancy as your own. Assert that you love, and 
are loved, as in the days of your honeymoon, and shut 
your heart, eyes and ears to any other belief. 

The New Thought rosary has been known to even 
bring Cupid back to the hearth which he was on the 
eve of deserting. 

Surely it is worth the effort of a trial. 



Love much. 



UNTO THE END 



Unto the End 

/ Icnow not wliere to-morrow' s paths may wend, 
Kor what the future holds; hut this I know: 
Whichever way my feet are forced to go. 

I shall he given courage to the end. 

Though God that awful gift of ffis may send 
We call long life, ivhere headstones in a row 
Hide all of happiness, yet be it so: 

I shall he given courage to the end. 

If dark the deepening shadows he, that hlend 

With life's pale sunlight when the sun dips low, 
Though Joy speeds hy and Sorrow's steps are slow, 

I shall he given courage to the end. 

I do not question what the years portend — 
Or good or ill, whatever wind may hlow; 
It is enough, enough for me to know 

I shall he given courage to the end. 

Every individual possessed of feeling, imagination 
and emotion faces at times great trouble, great despair. 
Only the born idiot escapes such seasons. 

Many who read the lines given above, will be 
standing face to face with some seemingly insupport- 
able pain, some unbearable burden. To all such I 
would say, Keep your faith in divine goodness. 

The hour when these lines were written was such 
an hour. A burden had been placed upon shoulders 

271 



272 New Thought Common Sense 

that shrank from the responsibility; a thankless duty 
supposed to be accomplished, presented itself anew 
and said sternly: ''Keep on in the same painful path; 
give up pleasures you believed you had won; I am 
still here; you must attend to me!" 

The command met with rebellion. Destiny seemed 
relentless, cruel and unjust. Human reason found no 
excuse for such a demand as Fate had made; yet 
Faith came to the rescue and said : ''In resignation and 
acceptance of the divine will alone lies happiness. 
Whatever is, is hest!' 

Then the lines were written, through blinding 
tears. Looking from the sunlit present back upon 
that difficult and shadowed hour, it seems strange that 
even for a brief season doubt of God's wisdom could 
have dominated faith. 

Although the burden proved heavier even than had 
been feared, and the duty required more sacrifice and 
patience than was imagined, yet courage was give?! to 
the eiid, and with the courage new strength, new 
understanding of life, new ideals of happiness. 

When the shadows rolled away and the duty was 
ended the sun shone with greater brilliancy than ever 
before, and there was a peace that passeth under- 
standing in the heart that had rebelled for a season, 
and through the accomplished duty came unexpected 
benefits and pleasures. 

Therefore I say to all you who stand at the difficult 
turns in the winding ways of this strange life to-day: 
Have courage; believe you will be given courage to 
the end; go ahead without fear; do the duty nearest 
to the best of your ability; do it with patience, with 
trust, with confidence that it is to be the means of 
bringing your best development. 



Unto the End 273 

And you shall be given courage to the end and 
recompense afterward, both here and yonder. 
The Law never fails. 



For this alone the Universe exists — 
That man may find himself is destiny. 

Should some great Angel say to me to-morrow, 
"Thou must retread thy pathway from the start, 

But God will give, in pity for thy sorrow^, 
Some one dear wish, the nearest to thy heart." 

This were my wish : From my life's dim beginning, 
Let be what has been ; Wisdom planned the whole. 

My want, my woe, my sorrow and my sinning, 
All, all, were needed lessons for my soul. 



KEEP STILL AND WAIT 



Keep Still and Wait 

There was once a woman came to me for expla- 
nation, counsel and comfort — explanation of God's 
seeming cruelty to her prayers, counsel upon her 
course of action, and comfort for her despair. 

She was well past the half century mark, worn, 
prematurely aged, bruised, tired, discouraged. 

She had been a woman of craving ambitions, mad 
for material pleasures and benefits, for money, place, 
power, prominence. All of these she had fought for, 
even at the sacrifice of her higher convictions and in 
defiance of the opinions of others. 

She had obtained all the things she sought, and 
each one had proven to be dead sea fruit and turned 
to ashes on her lips. 

It had all been long ago. For years she had been 
seeking to live quietly, peacefully and happily, and to 
be useful and good. And with each effort toward 
usefulness came disappointment. Obstacles rose in 
her path, discord destroyed harmony, chaos was given 
where she hoped for order. 

And so she was bitter toward God, and believed 
He was cruel and spiteful, like an ignorant human 
being. Instead it was the debris of old desires, lying 
jumbled in her mind, the inharmony of her thoughts, 
the absolute lack of concentration, the strife, the 
remorse, the sorrow for herself and the fretful discon- 
tent with it all, which brought the results she deplored. 

In place of sitting down in the silence and saying 
to her soul, "We have had our schooling, the lesson is 

277 



278 New Thought Common Sense 

learned and the higher truth has come; God is just, 
and I thank Him for all He has taught me, and peace 
is mine," she stood "with tense nerves and defiant eyes 
and cried : "I will have peace ; I will be let alone by- 
Fate — and only a devil would try to hinder me now 
in my old age." 

When she did not hold this thought she was fret- 
ting about the past, and wasting her vitality in a useless 
regret for things done. It was no wonder that she 
found herself facing despair at every turn, and that 
new battles awaited her with each new dawn. 
''Relax and he stilly was my counsel. 

If a man puts his shoulder out of joint or fractures 
it, before he can resume his duties, he must lie quiet 
for a time and let nature remedy the evil. So, if he 
disorders his life by wrong ambitions or desires and 
makes havoc of his happiness he must learn to Iceej) 
still within himself before he can restore order. 

To dash about gesticulating and crying for aid will 
never mend the shoulder, or the life. The bone and 
the mentality must knit in repose and silence. 

It is folly to wish we had not done this or that. 
Once done we cannot undo it, and better conserve 
our forces to repair the error by accepting its lesson 
and making it a part of our wisdom of experience. 

Let the past go. Men have been beggars in purse, 
health and reputation at fifty, and have lived to win 
fortune, vitality and respect. 

Nothing is impossible to the soul that will wrap the 
mantel of silence about itself and wait and believe. 



WHAT LIFE MEANS 
TO ME 



What Life Means to Me 

Exhilaration, anticipation, realization, usefulness, 
growth — these things life has always meant, and is 
meaning to me. 

Looking backward, I recall few mornings when I 
did not greet the day with a certain degree of exhila- 
rating expectancy. Even in times of trouble and 
sorrow this peculiar quality of mind helped me over 
obstacles to happiness which, retrospectively viewed, 
seemed insurmountable. A peculiar spiritual egotism 
possibly it might be called, for it led me to look for 
special dispensations of Providence in my behalf, and 
a setting aside of nature's seeming laws and regulations, 
as well as the violating of reason's codes, that I might 
be obliged. 

Facing the deadly monotony of the commonplace, 
as a child and a young girl, I always looked for the 
unusual and romantic to occur. Environed by the 
need of petty economies, I always expected sudden 
opulence. Far from the world's center of life and 
action, I felt that hosts of rare souls were approaching; 
and, while hungry in heart and brain, I believed that 
splendid banquets were in preparation for me. What 
would otherwise have been lonely, troubled, and 
difficult years, were made enjoyable by this exalted 
state of the imagination. 

Such concentration of expectancy, of course, 
brought some degree of result. Unusual things did 
happen. And that same virile, vivid imagination 
magnified them, and made them seem colossal con- 

283 



284 New Thought Common Sense 

firmations of my hopes. The commonplace meadows 
blossomed with flowers of beauty; and buttercups and 
daisies looked to me like rare orchids and hothouse 
roses. Between what really happened to enlarge and 
brighten my horizon, and what I believed had hap- 
pened, and what I continually expected to happen, 
the world widened, existence grew in interest, and 
earth palpitated with new experiences as the years 
passed. Always I expected more and more of life, 
and always it came in some guise. 

Such a temperament must have its season of despair, 
its melancholy moods, its self-depreciating periods, 
and its times of utter dejection. In early youth, such 
moods came and went like the sudden changes in our 
American climate in a spring month. But in my 
darkest hours, there was always a consciousness of 
life's wonderful interest — an intensity of enjoyment 
even of my own miseries. I was frequently sorry for 
the dull souls who did not know how to be so unutter- 
ably wretched as I could be. 

I cannot recall a moment of my life when I wished 
I had not been born. I have always realized the 
inestimable privilege of living. Yet, despite this fact, 
life in that early period, even, meant bitter battles with 
those moods of discouragement and despondency, 
which seemed to grow in duration and intensity as I 
entered more fully into an understanding of the world 
and of myself, and realized how much I wanted to do, 
to have, and to be, and how difficult was the attain- 
ment, virtually alone and remote from the arenas of 
action, for my home was in Wisconsin, on a prairie, 
a dozen miles from a town, and five from a post-office. 
When a post-office was established three miles away, 
I felt I was beginning to enjoy the luxuries of a 
metropolis. 



What Life Means to Me 285 

It required little assistance from outside sources, to 
awaken my mind to large rejoicings, and to change 
gloom to glory, in those early days. And thank God, 
that quality of mind has always remained with me. It 
is a composite quality, with equal ingredients of imag- 
ination, vanity, unreason and philosophy. But it is 
better than a million-dollar dower for any woman to 
start with in life. That I placed exaggerated values 
on many things and events, I lived to learn, often after 
I obtained the things or passed through the events. I 
watered my own stock, and frequently found it worth- 
less when offered to my later judgment for sale. But 
this was the best possible education ; of greater value 
than Latin and Greek for my life's purposes. 

The ability to express myself in verse and prose, 
at the age of eight, led me into print at fourteen. 
Small successes dazzled my sight so that succeeding 
large failures were not fully seen, or lent such light 
that I was able to grope my way safely over the dark 
places. At first the pleasure of writing and the pleas- 
ure of having people notice my work seemed all- 
satisfying. It brought, however, its pains as well as its 
joys, for unless I was praised, shadows covered my 
sun. 

There must always be discontent and pain for 
those who lean largely for enjoyment, on the approval 
which comes from others. 

Then I began to earn money and to be helpful to 
the family. Oh, the wonder and the joy of it ! I was 
the youngest of four, and there was an ever-growing 
need of money in the home, and in the homes of 
married brothers and sisters. There were nephews 
and nieces to assist, and the thought that my pen could 
bestow benefits upon others, electrified me. I was 



286 New Thought Common Sense 

very young, and there was a certain vanity in my 
unselfishness — a pride in being looked up to, and 
leaned upon, by my elders. This, too, as years went 
on, brought its punishment. For being so conscious 
of my good deeds, I was hurt if there seemed a lack 
of appreciation on the part of their recipients. I had 
not yet learned that "there is no such thing as ingrati- 
tude to one who does a good deed and forgets it," and 
that to look for any return — even gratitude from 
another — changes benevolence to barter and sale. 
To do good for good's sake, and to think no more 
about it, believing the seed will grow into a harvest of / 
goodness for the world — that alone brings happiness. 
Yet in the main I found great satisfaction in what I 
did with my pen, and have received full measure of 
appreciation from the recipients of my small but con- 
tinuous benefactions. If one failed to be appreciative, 
another more than repaid my effort. If one disap- 
pointed me in the use of the opportunity I offered, 
another happily surprised me. God's law of compen- 
sation has never yet failed me. 

Then there came an hour when a new aspect of 
life confronted me. It was a grave hour when I 
realized that I was not a mere troubadour to sing by 
the roadside my song to please the world's ear, and to 
take the pennies and the flowers cast me, but that my 
talent meant responsibility. It meant influence; it 
meant ''noblesse oblige." I was startled when the 
consciousness first came — startled and not altogether 
pleased. Then it began to assume dignity, and life 
was newly enriched. Instead of being merely a helper 
in the home, I realized I must be a helper in the uni- 
verse. I must mold thought, guide conduct, and sus- 
tain purpose by my talent; and from that hour 



What Life Means to Me 287 

humanity became my family, and all men and women 
my blood kin, and life and work grew in pleasure and 
importance. 

When the strong, true arms of love lifted the 
necessity of earning money from my shoulders, there 
was no danger that indolence and pleasure would 
drive away the habit of work. I knew I had been 
given my talent for a purpose, and that to neglect its 
use would be a sin. Only when I stop breathing shall 
I feel my work is finished here. 

Two crude books published before I left the 
"teens" for the "twenties" brought no profit, and only 
a local recognition. I had begun to be an object of 
social courtesies in Western cities ; residents of Madi- 
son, Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis invited me to 
their homes, and life assumed new and fascinating 
aspects. Yet these very aspects brought large dis- 
couragements. They tested my will power, my good 
sense, and my unselfishness ; and often I learned how 
far I was from possessing the strength of character I 
had believed to be my chief quality. I was a social 
creature by nature, and the taste of city life and its 
pleasures intoxicated me; but I realized I must do one 
of three things: curtail my enjoyment of these pleas- 
ures, lessen my helpfulness to others, or increase my 
income. The last method, I reasoned, would permit 
me to follow both inclination and duty, and I set 
myself to the task. Poems swarmed from my pen; 
short stories were forced from it; and nine of every 
ten, took from three to a dozen trips, back and forth, 
from Wisconsin to New York, before they found a 
purchaser. Slowly but steadily my income increased; 
not enough to meet all my growing requirements, but 
enough to give me courage to persevere. 



288 New Thought Common Sense 

Life always meant morei to me than literary 
achievement. To be a poet only, was never the sum 
total of my ambitions. I longed to be a cultured 
woman, to study languages, to be an athlete, to dress 
well, to travel, and to make myself an ornament to 
home and to society. I was a good horsewoman at 
an early age, and I danced well, and I wanted to add 
all other outdoor and indoor accomplishments to my 
repertoire. All these things required money, and 
there was no source of income save my pen to cover 
such expenses. It was a hard battle, a battle fought 
with the world and with myself; and there were many 
defeats and many mistakes and much lack of judgment, 
In my restless eagerness to push ahead, I often put 
myself back. I plunged into roads I imagined the 
great highways of Progress, and found them by-paths 
leading to marshes and jungles, or to the Land of 
Nowhere. But always each mistake served as a stair 
on which I climbed to a larger understanding of the 
world, of myself, and of life's real meaning. 

I recall one serious, discouraged hour of taking 
stock of life, when I felt I was farther away from my 
goal than ever before, and when I came to a decision 
that nothing but absolute adherence to duty, however 
humdrum, distasteful, and unsatisfactory, was worth 
while. It was on that day I wrote the following 
verses : 

I may not reach the heights I seek. 
My untried strength may fail me ; 

Or halfway up the mountain peak. 
Fierce tempests may assail me. 

But though that place I never gain, 

Herein lies life's comfort for my pain — 
I will be worthy of it. 



What Life Means to Me 289 

I may not triumph in success, 

Despite my earnest labor. 
I may not grasp results that bless 

The efforts of my neighbor. 
But though that goal I never see, 
This thought shall always dwell with me— 

I will be worthy of it. 

The golden glory of love's light 

May never fall on my way. 
My path may lead through shadowed night, 

Like some deserted byway. 
But though Hfe's dearest joy I miss. 
There lies a nameless strength in this — 

I will be worthy of it. 

Marriage in 1884 took me to the wonderful land 
of my dreams — the East. My wmter home in New 
York and my summer home on the Connecticut shore 
of the beautiful Long Island Sound opened up large 
vistas of ever-increasing opportunities for improve- 
ment, pleasure, and usefulness. I studied; I read; I 
indulged in physical culture ; I became intimate with 
the sea, and knew the intoxication (possible only to one 
inland born and bred) found in and on the ocean 
waves. That which we have always had, we never 
fully appreciate. I entertained and was entertained 
by many of the people whose names alone had 
enlarged my horizon in the old Western life. I felt I 
was dwelling in an enchanted land, and that feeling 
has never left me, despite some disappointments and 
disillusionments. 

The materialization into personalities of some of 
the famous names I had known, proved not always 
happiness or satisfaction. 

19 



290 New Thought Common Sense 

Talent and genius had seemed to me like two 
white sentinels guarding the door of the human mind 
from the intrusion of ignoble jealousy, petty envy, and 
unworthy selfishness. The gifted man and woman, I 
had thought, must be the great man and woman. I 
did not always find it so, and many of the halos I had 
bestowed upon imagined personalities, had to be modi- 
fied, or "cut over," or removed wholly, when the 
actual personage was encountered. Yet life, with 
its accustomed prodigality, gave me far more happiness 
than disappointment in these new associations. Friend- 
ships vital, educational, and lasting, have resulted, and 
life has grown richer with each passing year, and its 
meaning more potent with each experience. 

There have always been those along my life's path- 
way seeking to discourage me, to detract from my 
work, and to question my point of view. I suppose 
they were a part of my development, and more 
than likely they saved me from that most disastrous 
fault of youth — self-complacency. Early I was told 
that all had been said before me, by great writers; 
that I could only repeat, in a crude form, messages 
already delivered by inspired masters. Still I wrote 
on, as thoughts came, and believed I had been given 
my own personal message for the world. Later, as I 
made certain successes, I was told that my work was 
ephemeral and only ranked with the third class in 
literature, and that it could have no lasting effect upon 
the world. Still I continued writing, glad to do what 
was given me to do, though in the third class, and 
satisfied to let its influence die with me so long as it 
was helpful while it lasted. Critics have called my 
poetry versification, my prose platitudes. And while 
they have criticized I have kept at work. I have been 



What Life Means to Me 291 

assured that rare, choice souls did not recognize me in 
literature ; that I appealed only to the common, undis- 
criminating minds. And yet I have worked on. 

When I turned my literary craft from the still 
waters of magazines to the large, rushing rivers of 
American newspapers, I was given up, by these same 
critics and by many personal acquaintances, as 
one intellectually damned. They said I was prosti- 
tuting my talent, and those who heretofore insisted 
that I had never occupied any eminence in literature, 
now seemed to think I had fallen from some hitherto 
unrecognized altitude. Nevertheless, I kept to my 
own ideals and followed the light of my own spirit. 
Life was too big, feeling too intense, time too short, to 
wait for books and magazines as a means of expression. 
There was so much to say to an appreciative and 
ever-increasing audience, that plain prose must assist 
her more beautiful sister, poetry. 

Every new phase of life gave me a new message 
to humanity. Years of blest and satisfying compan- 
ionship as a wife, where respect supplemented love, 
a brief but wonderful knowledge of motherhood, a 
domestic and social life full of rich and beautiful 
experiences, travel and acquaintance with rare souls of 
earth, all have made and are making life mean to me 
more and more exhilaration, anticipation, realization, 
usefulness, and growth. 

To be a part of God's great universe, to be one of 
his voices, to be a worker and a helper, means to me 
the fullness of satisfaction. I expected much of life ; it 
has given, in all ways, more than I expected. Every- 
thing has happened. I have known loneliness, dis- 
content, trouble. I have waited years for what I felt 
Imust obtain immediately; yet for each hour of pain I 



292 New Thought Common Sense 

have known three hours of joy, and life has been 
good, and grows better as I walk forward. Love has 
been more loyal and lasting, friendship sweeter and 
more comprehensive, work more enjoyable, and fame 
because of its aid to usefulness, more satisfying than 
early imagination pictured. 

All hail to life— life here, and life beyond! For 
earth is but the preparatory school for a larger experi- 
ence, for a greater usefulness. 

I have come into closer acquaintance with sur- 
rounding realms with the passing of each decade. 
The impression of my early youth, that Invisible 
Helpers were near those who strove to do right and 
who sought the heights, became first a conviction, and 
is now a Knowledge. 



I know we are building our heaven 
As we journey along by the way ; 

Each thought is a nail that is driven 
In structures that cannot decay, 

And the mansion at last shall be given 
To us as we build it to-day. 



3l|77-7 



